Application of probiotics and different size of sodium bicarbonate powders for feedlot sheep fattening

This paper reports the use of probiotic and sodium bicarbonate in the diet of feedlot sheep. Probiotics from Heriyaki powder can function as forge preservative and sodium bicarbonate as an artificial rumen buffer that helps to stabilize pH levels in sheep’s stomach. The objectives of this formulation is to improve the rumen function, feed efficiency and reduce the risk of acidosis leading to a significant increase of average daily gain (ADG, gram/head/day) of feedlot sheep. Heriyaki probiotic liquid was prepared by fermenting beans mixed with sugarcane molasses while Heriyaki powder was obtained by mixing the Heriyaki probiotic liquid with rice hull powder and additional molasses sugarcane in anaerobic condition for 5 days. The powder was then applied for preparing whole maize silage 0.5 wt% in anaerobic condition for 7 days before feeding. Meanwhile, the feed concentrate contained acid buffer of sodium bicarbonate powder at different doses and sizes [0.35 wt% commercial size (T1), 0.18 wt% mesh -400 (T2) and 0.35 wt% mesh -400 (T3)]. The diet treatment was a total mixed ratio containing 1 kg silage and 700 g concentrate. The experiment was conducted to compare the effect of 3 different treatments (T1, T2 and T3) on dry matter intake (DMI, g/day), ADG and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of feedlot sheep for 2 months fattening, where each treatment was applied into a flock colony for 6 heads of sheep with three flock replications involving 54 heads of sheep in total for all the treatments. The results showed no difference (P>0.05) in DMI, ADG and FCR of feedlot sheep confirming the use of low-dose and finer sodium bicarbonate powder in T2 yield a targeted ADG of > 110 g but being more efficient than other treatments.