The Effect of Different Levels of Barley Wet Brewers on Performance, Some Blood Biochemical and Ruminal Degradability Parameters in Fattening Zell Male Lambs

This study investigated the effect of different levels of barley wet brewers on performance, rumen degradability, some blood parameters and gas production in fattening Zell male lambs. In the first experiment, in order to investigate different levels of barley wet brewers on performance and some blood parameters, in a completely randomized design with 4 experimental diets containing 0, 10, 20 and 30% barley wet brewers were used in 16 lambs with an mean weight of 30± 2 kg and age of about five months for 90 days. The experimental diets were isocaloric and isonitrogenous. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between experimental treatments in daily feed intake in the whole period (P<0.05). There was no significant difference between body weight gain, feed conversion ratio and blood parameters in experimental treatments. The mean apparent digestibility results of the nutrients were significantly affected by the experimental treatments, so that by increasing the level of barley wet brewers to 30%, the apparent digestibility of crude fat significantly increased, but the apparent digestibility of dry matter, crude protein and NDF, significantly decreased. In the second experiment, rumen degradability of dry matter, crude protein and NDF of experimental diets were measured using a nylon bag method with 3 fistulated Zell male sheep that were fed in the maintenance level. The incubation times were 0, 4, 8, 16, 24, 36, 48, 72 and 96 h. Significant differences were observed in degradability of dry matter, crude protein and NDF between experimental treatments (P<0.05). The degradability of the samples decreased significantly in all of parts, except in the rapidly degradable CP fraction that increased. There were significant differences in vitro of gas production rate between treatments (P<0.05). The overall result of this study showed that the use of 30% of wet barley brewers significantly reduced feed intake of lambs in the whole experiment period and its use in feeding lambs without negative effect on growth performance and diet nutrient digestibility is recommended.