FEEDING MANAGEMENT AND THE PERFORMANCE OF SHEEP IN SOUTHERN SINAI: 2, REPRODUCTION AND PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE OF THE EWE. | ||||
| Journal of Animal and Poultry Production | ||||
| Article 14, Volume 30, Issue 12, December 2005, Page 7457-7475 PDF (5.25 MB) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jappmu.2005.238455 | ||||
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| Authors | ||||
| M. F.A. Farid,; H. S. Khamis; E. Y.A. Eid; A. Helal | ||||
| Animal Nutrition Department, Desert Research Centre, AI-Matareya, Cairo, Egypt. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| An experiment was carried out to characterize key reproduction and production traits of sheep in southern Sinai. A free choice cafeteria feeding system was adopted to study diet selection and voluntary food intake and to insure nutrition is not a limiting factor. Eighty-five ewes in four groups were used. The control group was fed according to NRC standards throughout. Ewes in the three experimental groups were offered ad lib one of three basal roughages; berseem hay, one-third hay plus rice straw and rice straw plus a molasses-urea mixture. Roughages were made available ad lib throughout the experiment and comprised the sole ration during the early pregnancy stage. Thereafter, and up to weaning of offspring they were offered free choice in separate feeders ground corn grains and cottonseed meal. The hay-fed ewes appeared to select diets that satisfied their energy and protein requirements during the different stages of the production cycle and maintained optimum proportions of roughage and rumen degradable protein in their daily dry matter intake. The straw-fed ewes, on the other hand, failed to control their intake as per physical and physiological needs especially during early pregnancy and through lactation At the start of the experiment the ewes were not in their optimum condition, weighing only about 75% of adult weight. After lambing, control and hay-fed ewes attained optimum weights whereas straw-fed ewes nearly maintained their weights before breeding irrespective of receiving free choice concentrates during the late pregnancy stage onward. Hay-fed ewes performed similar or better than the controls throughout. Straw- fed ewes, even with free choice concentrates, had low fertility (lambing rates), high lamb and ewe mortality, low milk production, smaller birth weights of offspring. The ewe production index (kg lambs weaned per 100 ewes joined to ram) was 1765 and 1983 kg for the control and hay-fed ewes, and only 1197 and 672 kg for the hay-straw and straw-Mufeed groups. However, these may not be the consequence of feeding straw per se. The control diets contained straw contributing about one-third of the roughage in the diet or about 15% of total dry matter intake. Rather, it is the art of balancing the rations in the light of recent advances in nutrition and the allied sciences that makes the difference. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Feeding management; Diet selection; Reproduction; Production; Sheep | ||||
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