Effect of Either Once or Twice Daily Feeding of Pelleted High-Concentrate Diet on Performance and Digestion in Growing Lambs

Twenty-four Najdi ram lambs, weighing an average of 24kg and circa 3 months old were utilized in this trial to evaluate the effect of two feeding frequencies on growth performance, carcass characteristics, digestion coefficients, nitrogen retentiona nd ruminal VFA and ammonia-N concentrations. The feeding protocol involved once daily feeding at 0800 h and twice daily feeding in two equal portions at 08:00 and 15:00 h lambs were offered a sufficient quantity of total dauly DM (95 g DM day(-1) w0.75) to resemble ad libitum consumption. All lambs were slaughtered after a 14 week feeding trial. Although, the results showed no significant effect of frequency of feeding on DMI, ADG, carcass weight, digestibility of DM, CP and ADF and N-retention, lambs fed one meal daily had higher(rho < 0.050 gain efficiency and NDF digestibility and lower (rho < 0.050 dressing percentage than lambs fed two meals daily. Rumen total VFA concentrations at all post-feeding intervals were not influenced (rho > 0.05) by feeding, except at 10h post-feeding; rumen VFA concentration value at 10h post-feeding was higher (rho < 0.05) molar proportion of propionate and a smaller (rho < 0.05) molar proportion of acetae than from feeding twice daily. The ruminal fluctuations in total VFA and ammonia-N concentrations were less obvious in the lambs fed twice daily than once daily.