Vet World   Vol.14   June-2021  Article-12

The impact of lamb diets containing either barley or corn on growth performance and carcass quality

Background and Aim: Grains, such as barley (BAR) and corn (CORN), are major energy sources for small ruminants. This study aimed to assess the impact of feeding either BAR or CORN-based diets on growth performance and carcass characteristics.

Materials and Methods: Awassi male lambs, average body weight of 20.4±0.49 kg, were chosen randomly. Lambs were acclimated for 10 days and assigned to one of two diets (1) BAR and (2) CORN. Feeding continued for 70 days with 60 days of data collection. Daily intake was recorded. Measurements of body weight were taken starting from day 1 then once per week throughout the study period. On day 40, six lambs were randomly chosen from each group and placed in metabolism cages to assess digestibility and N balance. Lambs were slaughtered on the last day of the study to evaluate carcass characteristics and meat quality.

Results: Neutral and acid detergent fiber and ether extract intake were greater (p≤0.05) for lambs fed the BAR diets. Nitrogen loss in feces tended to be greater (p=0.09) for the CORN diet. Eye muscle depth (mm) tended to be greater (p=0.07) for the BAR diet. Nutrient digestibility, daily weight gain, carcass characteristics, and meat quality were not different (p≥0.1) between diets.

Conclusion: The results herein demonstrate that feeding BAR grain improved nutrient intake efficiency and consistency and did not affect weight gain and carcass traits. BAR-based diets might be a useful alternative to CORN for feeding growing lambs. Keywords: Awassi lambs, barley, carcass, corn, performance.

Keywords: Awassi lambs, barley, carcass, corn, performance.

How to cite this article: Ata M, Obeidat BS (2021) The impact of lamb diets containing either barley or corn on growth performance and carcass quality, Veterinary World, 14(6): 1487-1491.

Received: 19-01-2021  Accepted: 26-04-2021     Published online: 10-06-2021

Corresponding author: Belal S. Obeidat   E-mail: bobeidat@just.edu.jo

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.1487-1491

Copyright: Ata and Obeidat, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.