Nutritional studies on Mongolian sheep for meat-production in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Mongolian lambs (26), 30 kg live body weight and 4-6-month-old, were distributed into 2 groups, at random, to study the effect of group versus individual feeding on feedlot performance at 2 periods (0-28 day and 29-63 day). Animals were fed ad lib. on complete diet for 63 days and water was offered freely. The nutritive values of the diet were 75.6% TDN, 13.8% DCP and 2.7 ME (Mcal/kg DM). Average daily gain (ADG) was higher (P<0.05) by 35.9, 10.1 and 24.8% 'for animals fed in group than those fed individual for periods 1, 2 and the pooled respectively. ADG of period 2 was lower than that of period 1 (P<0.05) by 50 and 60.5% for lambs fed in group and individual, respectively. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was lower (P<0.05) for lambs fed in group than those fed individual by 21.7% for period 1, 3.4% for period 2 and 14.9% for pooled period. FCR of period 1 was iower(P<0.05) than that of period 2 by 51.4% and 40.1% for animal fed in group or individual respectively.