EFFECT OF FEEDING SPROUTED BARLEY GRAINS ON RICE STRAW AND OLIVE CAKE ON PERFORMANCE OF GOATS IN SINAI

Abstract

The present experiment was aimed to study the effect of sprouted barley grains (Hordeum vulgare L.) on a mixture of olive cake and rice straw (50:50) as a media without (T2) or with 1% (T3), 2% (T4), or 3% (T5) of urea solutions in comparison with the control Alfalfa, (Medicago sativa). All diets were fed ad libitum for 45 days.The experiment was performed on twenty desert male goats (18 months old) with an initial body weight of 24.34±1.29 kg randomly divided into five equal groups, (4 animals per group). Five digestibility trials were conducted to evaluate nutrients digestibility and nitrogen balance for experimental roughages. Results showed that the treatments with sprouted barely increased CP content while OM, NDF, ADF and ADL contents were decreased. The highest values of DMI due to the higher palatability for animals fed T5 compared with control group; the same group revealed a significant improvement on CP, EE, NDF and hemicellulose digestibility. The highest TDN% value was recorded by animals fed T5 (58.55%) followed by T1, T4, T3 and the lowest value was for T2. Highest (P≤0.01) DCP% was 9.24% which recorded by T1 followed by T5, T4, T3 and T2, respectively. All animals were in positive N-balance but animals fed on T2 retained the least amount of nitrogen balance (mg/kg BW) among treatments. Goats fed sprouted barely grains treated with urea solutions had significantly (P≤0.01) higher total volatile fatty acids and ammonia concentrations in rumen at 3 hours post feeding. In conclusion, goats in T5 recorded the best TDN, DCP and nitrogen balance with normal blood parameters.