Effect of Different Sources of Carbohydrates for One-Week Short-Term Nutrition on Reproduction Performance of Moghani Grazing Ewes

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of feeding sources of carbohydrates with different fermentation rate on reproduction performance of Moghani grazing ewes. Sixty Moghani ewes were allocated randomly to four nutritional groups as follows 1) without supplement feeding (control), 2) feeding 300 g barley grain per day, 3) feeding 300 g corn grain per day and 4) feeding 300 g concentrate mix containing ground barley grain and starch powder with 1 to 1 ratio from d 7 to d 14 of synchronization program. Estrus synchronization was done using CIDR for 14 days. At CIDR removal, the ewes in each group were received 400 IU PMSG intramuscularly and after 24 h, they were inseminated with frozen Romanov semen. There were no significant differences between experimental treatments for fecundity, prolificacy and twinning rate. Feeding carbohydrate sources increased blood glucose concentration (P=0.0567) and decreased urea concentration (P=0.0073) after 7 days feeding in compare to the control group. However, there were not significant differences between carbohydrate sources. The results of present study showed that feeding different carbohydrate sources as short term nutrition during estrus synchronization could have positive effects on energy metabolism of animals.