Effect of Forage on Rumen Development and Performance of Newborn Balouchi Lambs

Abstract

. An experiment was conducted by incorporating 35 newborn Balouchi lambs to study the effects of different type and levels of forage in starter diets on rumen development characteristics and performance. The 5 experimental treatments were included; starter diet without forage (control) and starter diet containing two levels (7.5 and 15%) of alfalfa hay and wheat straw. Inclusion of forages increased abrasive value (P=0.001), average particle size (P=0.006), peNDF (P=0.0002), BUN (P