T. M. PRABHUMILAN MONOHARMAYUM2023-10-312023-10-312021-02https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810199925Grains and their sprouts were compared adopting chemical and in vitro method of evaluation. A feeding trial was conducted to study the effect of feeding hydroponic maize sprouts on dry matter intake, nutrient digestibility and body weight changes in sheep. The hydroponic maize grain sprouts were prepared in a low-cost poly-house under controlled environment. Grains were first washed, soaked for one day using tap water, and then wrapped with a gunny bag for 48 hours for germination. Thereafter, they were spread out in trays and were irrigated 8 times daily using tap water. The trays containing hydroponic maize grain sprouts were removed after 10 days including the days of soaking and germination, the harvested carpets were exposed to air ventilation, then weighed and shredded to small pieces before feeding to the animals. Using 18 healthy sheep of around 1year age, one month feeding trial was conducted by randomly allotting them into three groups of six each. In the control (T1) group, sheep were fed with diet comprising roughage (conventional green fodder, 50% and FMS, 10%) and compounded feed mixture (CFM) at 60:40 ratio on DM basis. The conventional green fodder comprised of Maize and Sorghum fodder in 50:50 proportion. In treatment group two (T2) proportion of conventional green fodder and CFM were reduced by 50 per cent and replaced with hydroponic maize grain sprouts HMGS (45%). In the treatment group three (T3) conventional green fodder was completely replaced with HMGS (80 %) and CFM was reduced to 25 per cent of control. The CP, EE and NFE contents were higher in HMGS as compared to conventional green fodder. DMI was significantly (p<0.01) lower in T2 and T3 groups as compared to T1. The intake of TDN (g/day) was 496.1, 340.2 and 252.2 for groups T1, T2 and T3, respectively. The intake of TDN was significantly lower in group T3 fed HMGS (replaced CGF completely). The DCP intake (g/d) in groups T1, T2 and T3 was 57.85, 34.12 and 25.22, respectively. There was also significant (p<0.01) difference in DCPI among the treatment groups. The per cent of CFM in diet of experimental groups in T1, T2 and T3 was 46.29, 26.21 and 18.66, respectively. No significant difference in body weight change between T1 and T2 groups. However, significant (p<0.05) difference in final body weight among the treatment groups was noticed. It was concluded that the feeding of hydroponic maize grain sprouts to substitute 50-100% of either CFM or conventional green fodder is not beneficial to sheep.EnglishThesis