EFFECT OF RECONSTITUTION TECHNIQUE ON THE NUTRITIVE-VALUE OF PEARLMILLET GRAIN AND PERFORMANCE OF GROWING LAMBS

In vivo experiments (2) were conducted to determine the nutritive valu e of reconstituted pearlmillet grains and effect of their feeding on t he performance of lambs. The first experiment was conducted on lj lamb s to find our the nutritive value of raw pearlmillet grains (T-1), rec onstituted pearlmillet grains and 1% urea-treated pearlmillet grains. DCP increased due to reconstitution, and it was further increased to 7 .76 +/-: 0.08% due to addition of 1% urea. The TDN values were 66.45 /- 3.59, 75.73 +/- 2.31 and 79.58 +/- 1.55%, for T-1, T-2 and T-3 trea tments as compared to T-1 treatment. The second experiment was conduct ed on 20 growing lambs. divided into 4 groups, having 5 lambs in each group. The barley of control ration (T-1) was replaced with raw pearlm illet grains (T-2) with reconstitution (T-3) and reconstituted urea-tr eated pearlmillet grains (T-4) respectively. All the rations were ison itrogenous. The average growth rate was higher in groups T-3 and T-4 a nd was lowest in T2 group, however, the differences were nonsignifican t. The feed (DM) consumed per kg gain was 7.43 +/- 0.43, 9.24 +/- 0.95 , 7.45 +/- 0.32 and 7.33 +/- 0.80 kg for groups T-1, T2, T-3 and T-4, respectively. The results indicated that reconstitution of pearlmillet grains increased the platability, feed utilization and performance of growing lambs.