Effect of Iranian Clover Silage Processing With Easily Degradable Carbohydrates and Enzyme on Intake, Digestibility, Chewing Behavior and Body Weight Gain in Zell Sheep

This study has been conducted in order to investigation the effects of Iranian clover silage processing with easily degradable carbohydrates and enzyme on intake، digestibility، chewing behavior and weight gain in Zell sheep. 16 head of zell lamb fed with TMR (Dry Matter basis) including 40% forage (25% clover silage and 15% wheat bran) and 60% concentrate. The experimental design was CRD. Daily samples of forage، total mixed ration (TMR)، orts and total feces were collected in order to determine of apparent digestibility. Eating and ruminating activities were monitored visually for sheep in the treatments over a 24 h period for 3 d of each experimental period. The body weight (BW) of lambs was measured weekly in order to measure of weekly weight gain. The highest amount of Dry Matter Intake، as fed consumption of feed and apparent digestibility of nutrients belonged to treatment including silage treated with beet pulp and the lowest amounts belonged to treatment contained silage treated with enzyme. The most and the lowest weekly weight gain achieved at 4th and 3nd week، respectively. At the end of period، treatment 3 including silage treated with beet pulp and treatment 4 contained silage treated with enzyme had the highest and the least weight gain، respectively. The same results found for daily weight gain. Silage treated with easily degradable carbohydrates had better quality and thus their feed intake، rumination and total chewing activity reduced، so that treatment including silage treated with barley and treatment 1 including silage treated with enzyme had the lowest and the highest chewing activity، respectively.