Effect of different levels of fruit and vegetable waste on fattening performance of male lambs

In this study effect of four levels of fruit and vegetable waste (FVW) including 0, 33, 66 and 100 percent instead of forage part of diet on fattening performance of male lambs was investigated. Four iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous diets were prepared as total mixed ration in pelleted form. The diets were fed to 48 lambs (4 treatments, 4 replications with three observations) for 82 days. Animals were fed twice a day and feed refusals were collected and weighed daily. Animals were weighed every 14 days after 14 hours feed and water deprivation. At the end of fattening period, 4 animals from each treatment were slaughtered for carcass fractionation. The collected date including feed intake, average daily gain, feed conversion ratio, carcass traits and feed costs and were analyzed using SAS and the means were tested using Duncan test. Results showed that the highest (312g) and the lowest (153g) average daily gain were from the levels of 33 and 100 percent FVW respectively (p<0.05). The highest (2150g) and the lowest (1860g) daily feed intake were from the levels of 66 and 100 percent FVW respectively. The results also showed that the highest feed conversion ratio (12.41) was from the level of 100 percent FVW and the lowest (6.71) from the level of 33 percent FVW (p<0.05). The highest and the lowest feed cost were from the levels of 100 and 66 percent FVW respectively (p<0.05). The highest feed cost for each Kg of carcass were from the levels of 100 and 33 percent FVW respectively (p<0.05). Since the levels of 66 percent FVW caused the lowest feed cost for fattening of lambs it is recommended to use this level of FVW for fattening of lambs.