Effect of lime treatment of olive meal on in vitro utilization of total mixed ration containing olive meal as partial maize replacer

Aim: Present study pertains to lime treatment of olive meal to improve its digestibility. The objective of the present study was to assess the in vitro dry matter degradability of total mixed ration containing lime treated olive meal at varied levels of maize replacement to know the optimum level of lime and treated olive meal as maize replacement in small ruminant diets. Materials and methods: Study was carried out in two phases. In phase I, A complete diet was formulated and treated with lime at variable concentrations (0-8%) at 25% of maize replacement and subjected to in vitro studies as per Tilley and Terry. On the basis of the results of this phase, a concentration of lime for olive treatment was selected and tested at variable levels of maize replacement (0-50%) by treated olive cake in phase II. Data was analyzed as per the procedures suggested by Snedecor and Cochran. Results: The in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) of composite diet increased from 43.95% at 0% lime treatment to 48.68% on treating with 8% lime with significant (P