author(s)
Sivaramakrishna J, Suresh J, Gangaraju G, Punya Kumari B and Sreedhar S

abstract
A study was conducted to evaluate Lucerne hay supplemented diet on growth performance of twenty four Nellore Jodipi lambs for 90 days. The lambs were divided into 2 groups of each 12 and fed with 3% dry matter basis per kg body weight, out of which 70% of the requirement was supplemented from Super Napier roughage and 30% of the requirement was met from lucerne (T2 group) and compared with T1group where 70% of the requirement was supplemented with super napier roughage and remaining 30% from conventional concentrate mixture. There was a progressive and significant (P<0.05) increase in weight gain (kg) and average daily gain (g/day) in T1 (7.78 ± 0.68 and 86.48 ± 7.57) followed by T2 (5.95 ± 0.27 and 66.01 ± 3.17) was noticed. The average feed intake (kg/d on DMB) during growth trail in Nellore Jodipi lambs of treatments T1 (1.78±0.08) and T2 (1.59 ± 0.08) respectively. The feed conversion efficiency in Nellore Jodipi lambs of T2 (8.09 ± 0.69) group recorded slightly higher (P<0.05) than T1 (6.97 ± 0.46) group. The daily average total DMI (kg/d) during digestion trail was similar in T1 and T2 groups. The Nutrient Digestibility of CP and EE were not significantly different among the two experimental diets. Whereas, CF and DM digestibility was slightly (P<0.05) higher in T2 group than T1 and the digestibility of OM and NFE was slightly higher in T1 group than T2. The initial glucose, protein and BUN values are not significantly (P<0.05) different among the two experimental groups. The final glucose (mg/dl) value of T1 group recorded a significant (P<0.05) difference compared to T2 group. The final protein (g/dl) value of T2 (7.37 ± 0.19) recorded slightly higher (P<0.05) than T1 (7.00 ± 0.19) group. No significant difference in final BUN values among the experimental groups was observed. The final glucose values are significantly (P<0.05) lower than the initial values. Whereas, the final protein and BUN values are higher than the initial values concluded that Lucerne hay can be recommended as an alternative for better growth rate and feed efficiency in growing lambs.