Influence of diets with different ratio of ground: Whole sorghum grain on growth performance of feedlot lambs

Abstract

It was evaluated the influence of diets with different ratio of whole:ground sorghum grain on growth performance of feedlot lambs. Seventeen castrated males Rambouillet x Suffolk lambs of 20±5 kg initial weight were randomly assigned to 3 treatments (T) containing different proportions of ground (G) and whole (W) sorghum grain, T₁ = 100 G: 0W; T₂ = 50G: 50 W and T₃ = 0 G: 100 W. Lambs were weighed at the beginning of and every 15 days to estimate daily weight gain. Offered and refused feed was weighed daily to determine feed consumption. Feed efficiency was determined as daily DM consumption divided by daily weight gain. The experimental period lasted 60 days. Daily feed consumption, weight gain or feed efficiency were not affected by treatments (p>0.05), except for feed consumption from 31-60 days period, in which whole sorghum grain treatments (T₂, T₃) were higher (12%; p<0.05) than the ground sorghum grain treatment (T ₁). It is concluded that whole sorghum grain may replace part or all the ground sorghum grain in diets, without affecting the productive performance of feedlot lambs.