Digestibility by Sheep of Diets of Citrus Pulp, Corn, or Soybean Mill Feed with Three Forages

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Abstract
Citrus pulp, ground corn, or soybean mill feed was fed at 10, 40 and 70% of dietary dry matter [DM] with a single forage in each of 3 experiments. Forages were corn silage, sorghum silage and bermuda-grass hay. Diets also contained soybean meal, dicalcium phosphate and trace mineral salt and were fed to 4 sheep per diet at maintenance to measure digestibility. Digestibility of DM and N-free extract increased with each addition of grain. Digestibilities of crude protein of diets containing citrus pulp (69%) and ground corn (70%) were greateer than for diets containing soybean mill feed (66%), and there was an improvement at the 2 higher percents of grain (71 and 70%) over the lower (64%). Digestibilities of ether extract were 78, 75 and 72% for the 10, 40 and 70% grain. Although differences were small, each was significantly different. Digestibility of crude fiber with ground corn diets varied by forage combinations while it increased with each addition of citrus pulp and soybean mill feed.