Dietary Supplementation of Different Forms of Barley Grain in Mohgani Male Lambs Feeding: Impacts on Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, Blood Metabolites, and Carcass Characteristics

The effects of dietary supplementation of different forms of barley grain (whole, ground, steam flaking, tempering, and dry rolling) was investigated on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood parameters, and carcass characteristics of Mohgani male lambs. Thirty male lambs were allocated in a completely randomized design to five experimental diets containing different processing forms of barley grain (whole barley grain as control, ground, steam flaking, tempering, and dry rolling) for 90 days. Lambs were fed on barley in form of dry rolling exhibited the highest final body weight (54.96 kg, P=0.003), average daily gain (350 g/day, P=0.01), blood glucose (64.54 mg/dL, P=0.05), and warm carcass weight (23.12 kg, P=0.05) compared to the lambs fed on whole barley grain. Nutrient digestibility (dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber, and acid detergent fiber), urinary purine derivatives (allantoin, xanthine, and hypoxanthine), and internal organs weight (kidneys, lungs, and liver) were not affected by different forms of barley grain. Also, lambs fed on ground barley exhibited the highest blood urea nitrogen (14.84 mg/dL) among other experimental diets (P=0.04). Barley processing in the form of dry rolling had beneficial effects on the growth performance of male lambs, however, more scientific research is needed to study the other processing methods.