Effect of Intensive and Semi-intensive Feeding System on Productive and Reproductive Performances of Native Sheep

Abstract

The experiment was conducted with forty four pre-pubertal stages female lambs of 12.5±2.5 kg average live weight and 7.5±0.5 months of average age. Animals were equally and randomly allocated into two feeding groups, intensive and semi-intensive feeding systems with 22 animals in each group. Under intensive system, animals were fed concentrate mixture (15.0% crude protein (CP); 11 MJ metabolizable energy (ME)/kg dry matter (DM)) at the rate of 1.5% of live weight with ad libitum green grass from May to November and supplied urea molasses straw (UMS) in place of green grass from December to April. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in service per conception, litter size, lambing interval, gestation length, service period, birth weight and weaning weight between intensive and semi-intensive feeding system. Reproductive traits and productive traits were not affected by feeding system. Conception rate was higher (98.0%) in semi-intensive system than intensive system (83.0%). On the other hand lamb survivability was higher in intensive system than in semi-intensive system. The semi-intensive feeding system is found to be better to rear sheep for commercial purpose compared to intensive feeding system. Keywords: Feeding system; Productive; Reproductive; Native sheep. © 2011 JSR Publications. ISSN: 2070-0237 (Print); 2070-0245 (Online). All rights reserved. doi:10.3329/jsr.v3i3.7129                 J. Sci. Res. 3 (3), 692-698 (2011)