Intake, digestibility and passage rate of wheat straw and barley straw by sheep

Abstract

Two varieties of wheat straw mainly Hourani (H) and Sham 3 (S3) produced in years 1988 (Y1) 
and 1989 (Y2), were compared in terms of voluntary feed intake, digestibility and passage rate of 
their components in four mature Awassi male sheep for four periods in a Latin Square design. 
The results showed that the mean intakes of wheat straw were 71.5 for Hourani and 68.6 g/kg 
for Sham 3 and 59.2 for year 1988 and 80.9 g/kg w 0‘75 for the year 1989. However, the 
intake of H2 was significantly (P< 0.05) higher than that of the other three treatments. There was 
no significant difference in dry matter digestibility between varieties, but both were increased 
with the supplementation of soybean meal. There was no significant difference in the passage 
rate between straw varieties and years, in experiment one. 
Four varieties of barley straw (Arabic Abied, Er/Apam, C63 and Beecher) produced in two years 
(1988 and 1989) were compared for differences in voluntary feed intake, digestibility and 
passage rate of their components using two sets of Latin Square design with four Awassi male 
sheep for four periods. The results showed that the mean intakes of barley straw were 57.9, 56.4, 
56.8 and 51.9 g/kg w 0‘75 for the four varieties Arabic Abied, Er/Apam, C63 and Beecher 
respectively and 28.1 and 82.4 g/kg w 0‘75 for the two years 1988 and 1989. 
There was a little variation in the mean dry matter digestibility of the straws in the different 
treatments. There was no significant difference in passage rate between straw varieties and years. 
Present address: 
• Abnaee Est. for Agric. Trading Investment, Saudi Arabia. 
• Animal Resources Research Corporation, P.O. Box 610, Khartoum, Sudan.