Response of Karadi Lambs to Urea-Treated and Non-Treated Barley Straw with Two Levels of Rumen Undegradable Nitrogen

The effects of using urea-treated and untreated barley straw with two levels of rumen undegradable nitrogen (UDN) upon daily feed intake, live weight gain, feed conversion ratio and blood urea nitrogen of karadi lambs were studied. Twenty individual penned karadi lambs (mean weight 24.5 kg), aged 4-6 months were used. They were divided into four equal groups and fed one of the four experimental diets for 8 weeks. The results indicate a significant increase (P<0.01) in total daily intake of all nutrients by the lambs fed urea-treated straw as compared with those fed untreated straw. The results also indicate a significant increase (P<0.01) in live weight gain and feed conversion ratio for lambs fed urea-treated straw compared with those fed untreated straw. The results show a highly significant increase (P<0.01) in blood urea nitrogen of lambs fed urea-treated straw as compared with those fed untreated straw. Increasing the level of UDN significantly (P<0.05) reduced the blood urea nitrogen for lambs fed untreated straw as compared with those fed treated straw.