%0 Journal Article %A A. Karimi, %A E. Rowghani, %A M. J. Zamiri, %A M. Zahedifar, %T Nutritive Value of Gundelia tournefortii and Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) in the Ration of Lambs %J Journal of Crop Production and Processing %V 8 %N 1 %U http://jcpp.iut.ac.ir/article-1-410-en.html %R %D 2004 %K Animal nutrition, Gundelia tournefortii, Medicago sativa, Fattening lamb., %X An experiment was carried out to determine the effect of substituting alfalfa hay (Medicago sativa) with Gundelia tournefortii hay (a range forage in Fars Province) in the ration of fattening lambs. Alfalfa hay was substituted with Gundelia tournefortii harvested at the final stages of flowering at various ratios (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% dry matter basis) in the ration of fattening lambs. The rations (iso-nitrogenous and iso-energetic) were pelleted and each ration was fed for 75 days to 12 Shirazi Grey ram lambs with an average age of 136 days. The lambs were slaughtered and their feedlot performance and carcass characteristics were measured. Substituting alfalfa hay with Gundelia tournefortii hay did not significantly affect the mean daily weight gain, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, dressing percentage, internal fat weight, carcass meat content, or meat DM and CP contents (p>0.05). However, backfat depth was significantly different among various rations (p %> http://jcpp.iut.ac.ir/article-1-410-en.pdf %P 135-143 %& 135 %! %9 Research %L A-10-2-410 %+ %G eng %@ 2251-8517 %[ 2004