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Thirty-three Awassi lambs (18.0 ± 0.86 kg initial body weight; 75 ± 2.21 days of age) divided equally and were used in a completely randomized design to study the effect of partial replacement of barley grain by carob pods (CARP) on growth performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality. Treatment diets were no CARP (CON), 125 g/kg CARP (CARP125), and 250 g/kg CARP (CARP250) of dietary dry matter. At the end of the experiment all lambs were slaughtered to evaluate carcass characteristics and meat quality. Dry matter (DM) intake was similar among treatment diets (945.8, 932.8, and 999.5 g/d for the CON, CARP125, and CARP250 diets, respectively, P > 0.05). Other nutrient intakes (organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and acid detergent fiber (ADF)) followed the same pattern. There were no differences (P > 0.05) among treatment diets with regard to nutrient digestibility. Similarly, average daily gain and feed conversion ratio were comparable among treatment diets. Cost of gain ($/kg gain) was decreased (P |
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