In this study corn grain was used as whole, ground or urea treated grain to prepare diet containing 30, 50 or 70% concentrate. Eighteen castrated lambs (34.48 average body weight) were used during three periods to measure food intake and digestibility. The intake of dry matter (DMI), crude protein (CPI) and neutral detergent fiber (NDFI) were not affected by treatment of corn grain. Level of concentrate in diet affected (P<0.05) DMI and CPI which reached a maximum at 55.5 and 58.7% concentrate, respectively. The NDFI decreased linearly (P<0.05) with the increasing level of concentrate. Grain treatment did not affected the digestibility of nutrient except for crude protein apparent digestibility which was higher (P<0.05) for diet containing UG. Apparent digestibility of dry and organic matter and total carbohydrates increased linearly with increasing proportion of concentrate in diet. Whole corn grain can be used to prepare concentrate mixtures to be fed to sheep.
dry matter; nitrogen; ruminant
