Imapact of replacing corn and soya beans with sorghum and faba beans on ruminal fermentation and milk quality in sicilo sarde dairy ewes

In the first study: Four rams bred Sicilo - Sarde aged of 4.8 ± 0.5 years with an average live weight of 45.25 ± 3.5 kg, permanently canulated in the rumen. Rams received a daily ration in two equal meals. The diet contained 1.5 kg DM of oat hay, complemented by two concentrates: The control concentrate (A) included 10 % barley, 43.3 % corn, 25 % wheat bran, 17.7 % soybean meal, and 4 % of sheep mineral mixture (VMC) and the experimental concentrate (B) included 66 % white sorghum, 30 % faba bean, and 4% of VMC. The results showed that ruminal pH is statistically different (p 0.05) before and 2 hours after the morning meal distribution between the two types of concentrates but stabilizes at the end of the day (p 0.05). The rate of ammonia nitrogen is in fa vor of the control diet (p 0.05) before the distribution of the morning meal. The population ofciliated protozoa is similar for both diets (p 0.05. Different genres are statistically comparable for the two regimes. They were (55.64 ± 6.21%) Entodinium, (27.31 ± 6.46%) Isotricha, (10.95 ± 1.32%) Ophryoscolex , (7.82 ± 2.82%) for the concentrate Polyplastron witness against (56 ± 4.09%, 30.37 ± 3.92%, 8.32 ± 1.83%, 29.05 ± 1.83%) for the experimental concentrate. In the second test, twenty (20) ewes were divided into two groups homogenous for age (5.3 ± 1.25 vs. 5.7 ± 1.15 year), litter size (1.1 ± 0.31), the rank of lactation (4.3 ± 1.25 vs. 4.6 ± 0.96) and live weight (33.83 ± 5.63 vs. 33.95 ± 5.58 kg). Animals were lodged in similar boxes (1.01 m2/ewe) and received 1.5 kg DM/ewe/day of oat hay. The level of average production was 0.4 l for the control group (A) and the experimental group (B). Regarding the quality of milk, replacing corn and soybean to white sorghum and faba affected the dry matter content and density (p 0.05) without altering the fat content (TB), the protein content (TP) and pH (p 0.05). As the urea content is highly elevated in favor of the regime A (p 0.01). The concentrations of various fatty acids in milk were statistically comparable (p 0.05).