Compare the effect of different levels of pea(Cicer arietinum) grains on performance of Dahlag and crossbred of Romanov -Dalagh Lambs

The largest expense in the livestock industry is related to feed costs, which accounts for about 70-60% of all current costs. Utilizing new sources of energy and protein can help reduce these costs. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the performance and digestibility of lambs Dalagh and crossbred of Romanov- Dalagh lambs by replacing pea seed with barley and soybean meal in ratio.

This experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with 3 × 2 factorial arrangement with three types of diets including 0, 10 and 20% pea seed and two breeds of Dalagh and crossbred of Romanov-Dalagh. In order to implement the design were used from 15 Dalagh and crossbred of Dalagh-Romanov lambs with an average weight of 5: 30.66 ± 2.30 and 24.2 ± 1.5 kg that were kept individually for 84 days (plus 15 days of habitually). Weighning and feed intake was carried out and the finally were evaluated the carcass and the digestibility of feed for each treatments. All statistical analyzes were performed in mixed regression (Proc Mixed) in SAS software version 9/1.

There was no significant difference between treatments for weight gain (P> 0.05). In pure Dalagh, control and 20% pea treatments, with 294 and 265 grams per day had the highest and lowest daily weight gain respectively. In Dalagh breed, the lowest and the highest final weights were in pea and control treatments with a mean of 49.5 and 52.6 kg (P> 0.05). Also, in crossbred Romanov-Dalagh, the highest and lowest daily gain was observed in pea and control group with a mean of 294 and 288 g /day, respectively (P> 0.05). The average daily gain in two breeds in the control, 10 and 20 % of the pea treatments, were 299.5, 27.3 and 798.8 grams, respectively. The digestibility of feed in three treatments did not differ significantly. Percentage and carcass weight in Dalagh breed decreased with increase in pea in feed, unlike in crossbred Romanov-Dalagh.

The use of chickpea seed instead of soybeans and barley did not decrease fattening performance; In addition, the digestibility was almost the same as the control group. Fattening performance and digestibility of feed in crossbred Romanov-Dalagh was better than that of pure Dalagh. In general, it can be said that the replacement of chickpea seeds with existing import restrictions can help to significantly contribute to the sheep's fattening industry.