The effect of replacement various by-products for barely on carcass properties of Arabi fattening lambs

Abstract

This experiment was carried out at the Grdarash fields of the Agricultural researches directorate/general Agriculture directorate-Erbil in September (2007). 27 Arabi lambs age (5-6 months) with average starting weight (39.178 Kg/lamb) using. All lambs were sheared before starting the study. Lambs were divided into (3) groups (9 lambs/group). Control group was fed on (85% barely, 10% bran and 5% straw), and second and third groups were fed on various by-product in replacement for barely in loose and block forms respectively.The over all mean of each of the (lamb's final weight, daily weight gain, total weight gain, total forage consumption and feed efficiency ,heart girth, fat-tail length, fat-tail width at widest point and fat-tail width at the base,) were 54 Kg/lamb, 235.48 gm/day, 14.837 Kg/lamb, 120.981 Kg/lamb and 8.154 Kg/Kg live weight, 84.62cm, 19cm, 28cm, 8.44cm, respectively. Type of forage significantly affected (P≤0.01) each of daily weight gain in the first period, heart girth, fat-tail width at the widest point, over all mean total of forage consumption/lamb and feed efficiency and significant (P≤0.05) on total weight gain in the first period. The effect of initial lamb weight was non-significant on all traits. The effect of period (weeks) were significant (P≤0.01) on all studied properties except total weight gain and feed efficiency. It was found that lambs fed on various by-product in loose and block from were better in all traits than lambs fed on barely and lambs weighted 38 Kg and less in the starting experiment were better in fat-tail measurements and total weight gain than lambs weight 38 Kg. and more.