Effects of Concentrate Supplementation on Growth and Reproductive Performance of Female Sheep and Goats under Grazing Condition

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of concentrate supplementation on growth and reproductive performance of female sheep and goats under grazing condition. Six females each of sheep and goats aged about 6 month s and weighing on average 9.80 and 9.77 kg respectively were studied for 224 days. Goats and sheep were allocated to tw o feeding regimes in a 2x2 factorial experiment. Feeding of animals (sheep and goats) with concentrate supplement significantly (P<0.01) increased DM (477.7 vs. 253.0 g/d) intake compared with those of the control group. The higher intake of DM resulted in significantly (P<0.01) higher live weight gain in animals of supplemented group than those of control group. However, between sheep and goats significant difference was observed in live weight gain (P<0.01) and DM intake (P<0.05). The results showed that certain reproductive parameters such as age at puberty, gestation weight and kid birth weight may be improve d by supplementary feeding of concentrate. Therefore, feeding of grazing goats and sheep with concentrate supplement may be suggested to optimize growth performance.