The nutritive value of sugar beet pulp-substituted corn for Barki lambs

The experiment examined the effect of partial or whole replacement of yellow corn in growing barki lambs rations by dried sugar beet pulp (sbp) on digestibility,blood parameters and growth performance. forty barki lambs averaged (30 kg live body weight) and 6 months old were divided into 5 groups of 8 lambs each for 90 days trial. all tested rations were contained concentrate feed mixture (cfm) and clover hay. corn grains was the main source of energy in the cfm (sbp0),while 25,50,75 and 100% of cfm corn were substituted by sbp in sbp0,sbp50,sbp75 and sbp100,respectively. results showed that spb75 and sbp100 recorded higher (p<0.05) nutrients digestibilities with exception of ether extract. rations' nutritive values as total digestible nutrients (tdn; p=0.016),digestible energy (p=0.011),metaboloizable energy (p=0.001) and digestible crude protein (dcp; p=0.001) were higher for sbp50 and sbp75 compared to the other treatments. all measured blood parameters were within normal ranges with a significant (p<0.05) effects of experimental rations on blood plasma parameters. data of rumen parameters of showed insignificant effects of sugar beet pulp on volatile fatty acids. but there were a linear negative effect on ruminal ph and ruminal ammonia concentrations with sbp rations compared with control ration. the average daily gain indicated that sbp75 and sbp100 tended to have similar values (p=0.638) like sbp0. feed conversion as kg dm/ kg gain was insignificantly differed (p>0.05) among the experimental rations whereas tdn and dcp per kg gain was significantly (p<0.001) higher for the animals fed sbp0. it could be concluded that sbp may be used as a partial or whole replacement of yellow corn on the rations of growing barki lambs. copyright 2016 zoological society of pakistan.