Authors
Abstract
20 one-month-old Sanjabi suckling lambs (ten males and ten females with initial liveweight of 13.4 ± 1.3 and 11.6 ± 0.9, respectively) were used to assess the effect of ad libitum creep mixture on dry mater intake, live weight gain and carcass characteristics. The lambs were blocked within sex according to their live weight and randomly allocated to one of two treatments, control (free suckling and free choice of alfalfa) or supplementary (ad libitum creep mixtures with free suckling and free choice of alfalfa) in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement. The study was continued for 100 days and at the end of the experimental period, all lambs were slaughtered to assess carcass characteristics. Average daily milk intake of males was higher than females (P< 0.01). Daily live weight gain (g/d) was significantly (P< 0.01) higher in males than females (240 vs. 163 g/d) and in the supplementary group than the control (259 vs. 145 g/d). Fat tissue in both male and female lambs in supplementary group was significantly (P< 0.01) more than that in the control. It could be concluded that the creep mixture diet improved growth rate and carcass characteristics and the fat content of the lambs.
Keywords
Pre-weaning growth response of lamb fed creep mixture with varying levels of energy and protein. Small Ruminant Research. 39: 137-144.
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