Productive performance of hair lambs, fed with fresh lemon pulp as an energy source

Objective. Evaluate the effect of the inclusion of different levels of fresh lemon pulp (FLP) was determined as a substitute of sorghum grain in the feeding of hair sheep in parameters of daily weight gain (DWG), daily food consumption (DFC), and feed conversion (FC), the nutritional composition of the ration was also determined. Materials and methods. The study was carried out using 20 hair ewes individually fed on a period of 75 days. The treatments were as follows: T1=0% FLP; T2=10% FLP; T3=20% FLP; and T4=30% FLP based on DM. A totally randomized design was used with five replicates per treatment. Concentrate and FLP were offered ad libitum as a mixture, registering the amounts of feed offered and rejected daily. Body weight was registered every 21 days for the DWG and analysis of nutritional composition of rations was performed. And for an analysis of daily food consumption. The data were evaluated through ANOVA in an entirely randomized design. Results. There was no meaningful difference (p>0.05) for the DWG that scored 97, 108, 103 and 103 g or for the FC that scored 9.62, 8.68, 9.31 and 10.23, respectively. For each treatment and for each DFC based on DM, a meaningful difference was observed (p<0.05) for T4 by replacing sorghum to 30%. Conclusions. FLP is an alternative to replace partially or completely the grains for hair ewes without lessening the evaluated parameters.