Taurine is an amino acid derivative required by cats to maintain normal vision and heart function. Although extensive research has been carried out on its effects in simple-stomached animals, the benefit and utilization of dietary taurine in ruminant animals remains unknown. The objective of this study is to determine if dietary taurine improves growth rate in lambs. Sixteen castrated Dorper lambs will be randomly assigned to 1 of 4 taurine treatment groups. The control group will receive a standard diet containing corn and alfalfa without added taurine. The 2nd group of lambs will receive 40 mg/kg of body weight (BW) per day of feed grade taurine mixed into their diet. The 3rd group of lambs will receive 80 mg/kg BW per day of taurine and the 4th group will receive 120 mg/kg BW per day of taurine. Lambs will be weighed once per week to estimate average daily gain and feed efficiency. The data will be analyzed using ANOVA and polynomial contrasts will be used to test for linear and quadratic effects of taurine on average daily gain. The hypothesis is that increasing levels of dietary taurine will improve growth rate by lambs until a response plateau is reached. The results could be used to modify nutrition management decisions by sheep producers and act as preliminary data for future studies using cattle.