Grain to Gain: Rice Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles (RDDGS) and the Economic Edge for Nagavali Ram Lambs

The Experiment was conducted at the Livestock Research Station, Garividi, Vizianagaram District, Andhra Pradesh for 90 days i.e. from July to October, 2023 to assess the impact of incorporating Rice Distillers Dried Grains with Soluble (RDDGS) by substituting soybean meal in the concentrate mixture on the growth, digestibility, and cost economics of Nagavali ram lambs. Twenty-four lambs were randomly assigned into four treatment groups. In the treatment groups, soybean meal was replaced with RDDGS at 0% (T₁), 50% (T₂), 75% (T₃), and 100% (T₄) levels. Our results inferred that replacing of soyabean meal with different concentrations of RDDGS did not significantly (p>0.05) affect dry matter intake (DMI and feed conversion ratio. Further, gross digestibility of different nutrients and cell wall constituents were also unaffected. The cost of feed kg^-1 of weight gain was significantly (p<0.05) reduced. The cost of feed kg^-1 gain was significant (p<0.05) because of the replacement of soybean meal with RDDGS. T₂, T₃ and T₄, showing decreases of ₹ 11.23, ₹ 17.59, and, respectively, in comparison to the control (T₁). The study concludes that RDDGS can completely replace soybean meal in sheep diets without affecting nutrient efficiency. This replacement maintains the same growth and digestibility while significantly reducing the cost of production per kilogram of body weight by 12.7%. Consequently, RDDGS emerges as a cost-effective alternative to soybean meal, offering economic benefits while sustaining the nutritional quality of the feed.