Effect of Replacing Barley Grain by Urea in the Diet of Iraqi Lambs

Abstract

This study conducted to seeks the effects of partially changing barley grain (BG) with different levels amount of urea on growth performance, rumen fermentation, nutrient digestion and blood parameters in fattening lambs. Twelve Awassi male lambs were divided according to body weight (BW) into three equal groups (4 lambs per each group) and housed in individual pens and assigned to one of three dietary treatments in a randomized block design: barley grain (BG)were given to animals according to the body weight of lambs (3 % of BW) and (BG) reduced and replace with 0, 10, 20, gm urea. Compared with the control the lambs fed the reduced GB diet plus urea was higher (p < 0.01) concentrations of ruminal ammonia and increased with increasing the urea supplementation. As well as increased the crude protein (CP) intake , blood urea nitrogen (BUN), final BW, dry matter intake (DMI) and average daily gain (ADG) were observed with the increasing urea addition to the diet, results showed that 10 gm of urea could substitute of 10 gm BG per kg feed DM without any negative effect on health performance of fattening lambs when fed urea.