The Effect of Adding Protected Fat in the Ration of Lactating Awassi Ewes and Fattening Lambs

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of adding ruminally protected fat to ration of milking ewes and fattening lambs. In the first experiment, a thirty Awassi (2-5 years old) averaging sixty days postpartum were used in complete randomized design. Animals were randomly divided into three groups; each group was randomly divided into two pens (5 animals/pen). The first group was fed a control diet without fat supplementation, group two and group three were fed on the rations containing 3% and 6% fat supplemented diet, respectively. Dry matter intake, milk yield and milk total solid were unaffected by fat inclusion. Milk fat percentage increased (P 0.05) with the 3% level. Milk protein percentage didn’t change by the 3% level inclusion but a significant (P 0.05) decrease was observed by the 6% inclusion on diet. In experiment two, six ewes from each group in experiment one were selected randomly to assess the effect of adding the same level of fat on nutrient digestibility. No significant (P 0.05) differences were observed for DM, OM, ADF and NDF digestibility. Digestibility of CP decreased and EE digestibility increased significantly by adding fat to the ration. The objective of experiment three was to estimate the effect of adding two levels of fat on growth performance of Awassi lambs. Thirty Awassi lambs were randomly divided into three groups each group was divided into two pens (5animals/pen) and allocated to three diets. The first was without added fat and considered as a control, the second was with 4% added fat, and the third contained 8% added fat. The addition of fat didn’t affect dry matter intake but increased (P 0.05) ether extract intake. Final body weight, average daily gain and weight changes were improved (P 0.05) by adding fat but there was no significant differences between the 4 and 8% level of fat. The experiments showed that using fat in a protected form at levels that don’t exceed 4% could improve production performance in sheep