Abstract
Twenty-one non-castrated male Rambouillet lambs (21±1.44 kg body weight) were used to evaluate the effects of increasing dietary levels of Prosopis laevigata pods (PLP) in a 72 d growth performance trial. Three dietary treatments defined as PLP0 (control, 0 g PLP/kg DM), PLP250 (250 g PLP/kg DM), and PLP500 (500 g PLP/kg DM) were evaluated. Animals fed PLP250 and PLP500 had higher daily weight gain (P<0.05) and feed intake (P<0.01) than lambs fed PLP0. Feed conversion was improved by PLP addition in the diets. Feeding cost decreased linearly as the level of PLP in the diet increased. Blood urea-N concentration increased linearly as PLP increased in the diet. Lambs fed PLP500 had higher (P<0.05) blood uric acid concentrations than lambs fed PLP0 and PLP250. Ruminal total volatile fatty acid (VFA) increased linearly with increasing dietary PLP. Lambs fed PLP250 and PLP500 had higher ruminal ammonia N concentrations (P<0.05) than lambs fed PLP0. Dietary inclusion of PLP did not affect health status of lambs. Prosopis laevigata pods can be used safely in finishing lambs’ diets at 500 g/kg. Keywords: carcass, feed cost, performance
Highlights
The Chihuahuan Desert extends over the central and northern portion of the Mexican plateau and projects into the southern part of the USA
In Prosopis laevigata pods (PLP), we found a tannin concentration of 40 mg/kg DM (Peña-Avelino et al, 2014), which is too low to induce negative effects on production parameters
Our results showed that the use of PLP is an alternative that can provide economic benefits to the farmer, as indicated by other authors around the world (Mahgoub et al, 2005a,b; Obeidat et al, 2008; Obeidat & Shdaifat, 2013)
Summary
The Chihuahuan Desert extends over the central and northern portion of the Mexican plateau and projects into the southern part of the USA. This desert has a dry climate with a mean annual precipitation of 2335 mm, most of which occurs in the summer (June-October). The adopted systems are based on conventional feed ingredients such as soybean meal, barley, sorghum, wheat, and maize grain. These ingredients are known to be excellent sources of nutrients, their prices have increased significantly in recent years. In the Chihuahuan Desert, Prosopis laevigata trees are well adapted and one hectare of rangeland (without irrigation) can produce 3.7 t/ha of pods (as feed) annually, whereas maize grain yield is 0.57 t/ha (Ruiz, 2011)
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