The effect of replacing of some of cereal grains of diet with ensiled pomegranate seed pulp on dry matter intake and production performance of south Khorasan crossbred goats

Pomegranate seed pulp (PSP) as a valuable and low cost feed may be used as a cereal grain replacement in ruminant diet.
This experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of replacing some of cereal grains of diet with ensiled PSP (with or without added urea) on dry matter intake and production performance of south Khorasan crossbred goats.
A total of 21 goats with average daily milk yield of 645.8 ± 0.15 kg and average body weight of 26 ± 2.5 kg were randomly assigned to one of three experimental diets based on collected records at pre-experiment period. Experimental diets were included: 1- control (without PSP), 2- containing 10% of ensiled PSP without urea, and 3- containing 10% of ensiled PSP with urea (DM basis), were fed individually as totally mixed ration to goats.
Replacing some of cereal grains of diet with ensiled PSP without urea increased (P Ensiled PSP with urea can be used as a cost effective by-product for replacing of some part of diet’s grain and thereby reducing the production costs.