Feeding barley and corn hydroponic based rations improved digestibility and performance in Beetal goats

The current trial aimed to determine the impacts of fed goats with hydroponic fodder-based maize or barley rations on nutrient digestibility, growth and efficiency of consumed feed, and some blood con-stituents. Twenty-four post-weaned growing Beetal male kids (3 months of age with an initial body weight of 12.4 +/- 0.03 kg) were randomly allocated into six equal groups (n = 4, each one). Each group was offered one of the following dietary treatments: T0, fed 100 % basal diet (BD; containing 80 % Lucerne hay and 20 % wheat straw); T1, fed 80 % BD + 20 % Hydroponic fodder Maize (HFM); T2, fed 80 % BD + 20 % Hydroponic fodder Barley (HFB); T3, fed 60 % BD + 40 % HFM; T4, 60 % BD + 40 % HFB; T5, 60 % BD + 20 % HFM + 20 % HFB for 90 days feeding trial period. Animals were kept under the same hygienic, rearing and environmental conditions. The dry matter and crude protein intake results revealed significant increases in all hydroponic-based rations, with T4 and T5 reporting higher values when com-pared to the control and other treated groups. Whereas, the T1 group had the maximum fiber intake com-pared to the other treated and non-treated groups. At the same trend, the T5 group recorded the highest final weight, weight gain, and total weight gain values and the lowest feed conversion ratio compared to the other experimental groups. In addition, goats fed a diet containing two types of hydroponic-based fodder (T5) exhibited a highly significant improvement in all nutrient digestibility and total nitrogen bal-ance compared with other experimental groups. Furthermore, feeding goats hydroponic maize and barley-based rations had no significant influence on blood biochemical and hematological parameters, except that the lymphocyte percentage increased considerably in T2 and T3 groups compared to other experimental groups. In conclusion, in arid and semi-arid regions where most feeds are imported and resources of both land and water are scarce, feeding animal diets incorporating hydroponic fodder might improve growth and production while filling a feed supply gap. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).