Short communication: effect of substituting hydroponic green barley forage for a commercial feed on performance of growing rabbits

Abstract

The effect of replacing a commercial feed with hydroponic green barley forage (HGBF) was studied on productive performance and carcass yield of growing New Zealand rabbits. Four mixed diets based on a pelleted commercial feed (15.7% crude protein and 12.3% crude fi ber) were made by substituting wet HGBF (containing 16.1% dry matter, 2.18% crude protein and 2.36% crude fi ber) for the commercial feed (0, 10, 20 and 30%). Sixty-four rabbits, 35 d of age and with an average body weight of 917±9.7 (standard error) g were assigned to the 4 treatments and caged in groups of 4 rabbits (2 females and 2 males/cage). HGBF was grown for 15 d, and administered immediately after harvesting, including the radicular pad (roots and seed) and leaves. Feed intake and growth rate from 35 to 70 d of age were recorded. The rabbits were then slaughtered and the dressing-out percentage computed. Both dry matter feed intake and growth rate decreased linearly by 0.75±0.091 g/d (P<0.001) and 0.20±0.040 g/d (P<0.001) per unit of HGBF increase. Rabbits consumed daily all the HGBF offered 0, 2.3, 4.6 and 7.0 g DM for 0, 10, 20 and 30% substitution level, respectively. Feed conversion (average 3.26±0.026) and carcass yield percentage (average 58.1±0.32 %) were not affected by treatments. It was therefore concluded that replacing pelleted commercial feed by wet HGBF impaired growth performances.

Effects of diets with Amaranthus dubius Mart. ex Thell. on performance and digestibility of growing rabbits

“…Its CF, NDF and ADF contents (199.1, 398.0 and 288.0 g/kg DM, respectively; Table 2) were comparable to those of alfalfa meal (Maertens et al, 2002). Furthermore, A. dubius showed a higher content in protein, fibre and ash than that reported in recent researches for unconventional vegetables used in rabbit feeding, such as plants of Hedysarum flexuosum (Kadi et al, 2011), Zea mays (Martínez et al, 2006) and Tithonia diversifolia (Nieves et al, 2011), as well as hydroponic green barley forage (Morales et al, 2009) and root of Cichorium intybus (Volek and Marounek, 2011). It should be noted that DE predicted for A. dubius meal by the Fekete and Gippert (1986) World Rabbit sci.…”

EVALUATION OF BAKER'S YEAST (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) SUPPLEMENTATION ON THE FEEDING VALUE OF HYDROPONIC BARLEY SPROUTS FOR GROWING RABBITS

“…Besides, the CP contents in HBF (15.75%) and HBFY (14.68%) were comparable to the values 14.44% (Gebremedhin, 2015) and 15.1% (Dung et al, 2010). The CF of the HBF (15.90%) and the HBFY (15.67%) were very close to the reported value 15.5% from Fazaeli et al (2012), and that of Morales et al (2009) as 16.3%. The EE content of the HBF (4.05%) and HBFY (4.12%) were within the value 3.31% which was reported by Mohsen et al (2015), and that value 5.67% obtained by Gebremedhin (2015).…”

“…Recently, the hydroponic fodder industry has been advertised extensively worldwide, which renewed the interest of livestock producers and scientists as well (Bruke, 2014). The barley grains have been considered as the most adequate grains for hydroponic fodder production; mainly for its availability with low prices (Morales et al, 2009). The most important aspect of hydoponic fodder production is that the hydroponic sprouting of one kg of barley grains can yield from 7 to 10 kg of green fodder within 8-15 days regardless of season (Gebremedhin, 2015).…”

Influencia de Niveles de Azufre en la Producción, Composición Química Bromatológica y Digestibilidad del Forraje Verde Hidropónico de Cebada (Hordeum vulgare L.)

“…Esta metodología ha sido incorporada en sistemas intensivos de producción animal para proporcionar un nuevo ingrediente como alimento, suplemento o reemplazo de uno o más componentes de la ración diaria (Figueroa et al, 1999;Rodríguez et al, 2005;Morales et al, 2009), debido a su alta palatabilidad, digestibilidad y por presentar, en general, niveles adecuados de energía, vitaminas y minerales (Chang et al, 2000).…”