ABSTRACT
Aiming to evaluate triticale silage compared with berseem silage and there mixture, a growth
trial was carried out on 21 Rahmani lambs, divided to three similar groups, 7 each. All animals
were fed concentrate feed mixture (CFM) to cover 50% of their requirement recommended by
NRC (1985) for sheep, along with ad libitum offered silage. Berseem silage offered to G1, silage
mixture of 50% berseem plus 50% triticale was given to G2 and sole triticale forage silage to
G3.The feeding trial lasted 112 days using randomized complete block design. In addition, three
lambs of each group were involved in digestion trial to estimate digestibility and feeding values of
the experimental rations.
Results show that CF, EE, NFE and NDF contents were higher, while CP, ash, ADF and ADL
were lower in triticale silage than berseem silage. The chemical composition respecting all
nutrient contents of silage mixture (berseem/ triticale) intermediated values of either berseem or
triticale silages. Ruminal pH values were not significantly affected by treatments, while ammonia-
N and microbial protein tended to be markedly higher with both berseem and berseem/triticale
silages compared with triticale silage rations. But, ruminal TVF's concentration post-feeding
showed the lowest values (P<0.05) with berseem silage ration compared with triticale silage one.
Molar proportion of ruminal VFA's showed higher (P<0.05) acetate and propionate and lower
(P<0.05) butyrate with the mixture silage ration (G2) than the other rations. Blood serum urea
concentration was significantly higher with berseem silage ration (G1), while glucose
concentration was significantly higher with triticale silage ration (G3), compared to others. The
digestion coefficients of most nutrients (CF, CP and EE) were significantly higher with G2 than
those of G1 and G3 rations. The TDN of G2 ration was the highest (P<0.05) among the dietary
treatments. The DCP values were more or less equal regarding G1 and G2 where both had higher
DCP values than that of G3 (P<0.05). The daily DMI and TDN showed more values with mixed silage than sole silages, while DCPwas least with triticale silage. Daily body gain was significantly more with mixed silage (145.9g/h, G2) than both sole silages (133.4 g/h, G1 & 130.1 g/h, G3)Feed conversion efficiency, based on DM, TDN and DCP, were better with G2 (8.77, 5.72 and0.93, respectively) in comparison with G1 and G3 rations.