effect of feeding dietary treated wheat straw with urea and whey on fattening lambs performance

this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of feeding treated wheat straw with urea and whey on fattening lambs performance. about 4.5 kg urea and 1.5 kg salt were dissolved in 40 l water and mixed with 30 l of whey. the solution was spread over 100 kg chopped wheat straw. thirty two male lambs were randomly divided into four feeding groups to compare performance with diets based on barley supplemented with 30% wheat straw. treatments were (1) 30% untreated wheat straw (uws) (control), (2) 20% uws + 10% treated wheat straw (tws), (3) 10% uws + 20% tws, (4) 30% tws. lambs were fed with isocaloric and isonitrogenous grower diets. the animals were slaughtered after 85 days of feeding and carcass parameters were measured. average final weights did not differ significantly between groups (p>0.05). however, average live daily and weight gain were significantly (p