Correction: Date palm by-products, fish waste, and Moringa oleifera as a cost-effective total mixed ration for fattening lambs: trade-offs between economic benefits and growth performance

Feeding lambs costs money that many farmers in dry regions simply cannot afford. Researchers in Oman tested whether a feed mixture built from local agricultural leftovers — date palm fronds, date syrup, fish processing waste, and Moringa oleifera leaves and stems — could replace expensive commercial feed without sacrificing too much animal performance. The locally formulated ration cut daily feeding costs by 68.5% and reduced the cost per kilogram of live weight gained by 41.3%, which is a substantial economic advantage for small-scale producers. However, those savings came with real trade-offs. Lambs eating the commercial feed gained nearly twice as much total weight over 84 days — 11.30 kg versus 6.37 kg — and converted feed to body mass far more efficiently. The formulated ration did outperform on one digestibility measure: crude protein digestibility was higher at 68.64% compared to 61.35% for commercial feed. Interestingly, meat quality attributes — including tenderness, cooking loss, and acidity — were statistically similar between the two groups, suggesting the cheaper diet did not compromise the eating quality of the meat produced. Animals on the local ration also deposited 35.4% less internal body fat, which could be seen as either a benefit or a drawback depending on market preferences. Blood health markers stayed within normal ranges for both groups throughout the trial. The study frames this as a genuine trade-off: producers in resource-limited arid environments may accept slower growth in exchange for dramatically lower input costs, particularly where date palm by-products, fish waste, and Moringa are locally abundant and otherwise discarded.