REPLACEMENT CORN SILAGE BY ORANGE WASTE SILAGE IN BARKI RAM LAMBS RATIONS

Abstract

The present work was conducted to study the effect of replacement corn silage (CS) by orange waste silage (OR) improved the performance of Barki lambs using one of the following rations: R1: 50% concentrate feed mixture (CFM) + 40% corn silage (CS) + 10% rice straw (RS) (control). R2: 50% CFM + 20% CS + 20% orange waste silage (OS) + 10% RS and R3: 50% CFM + 40% OS + 10% RS. Two experimental trials were conducted: Results showed the silages had good smell and were free from any signs of molds in all groups. Digestibility trial was conducted using nine mature local Barki breed rams were divided in three groups (3 animals each) weighting with average body weight 57 kg ± 1.5 kg and 3 years old. R3 recorded (P 0.05) among the three tested groups in all blood parameters. Eighteen Barki lambs with average body weight 21.00 ± 0.20 kg/head were used. Lambs were divided into three groups (6 animals each) and fed the three respective rations with the same regime of feeding the experimental lasted for month. R3 recorded the highest value of average daily gain compared with R2 and R1. Also, R3 recorded the best value of feed conversion (6.24) followed by the R2 (6.52) than the control (7.03). It was concluded that corn silage by orange waste silage to rations of growing Barki lambs could improve their performance especially replacement of 100% corn silage by orange waste silage (R3).