Intake and growth performance of female goats and sheep given concentrate supplement under grazing condition

Six females each of sheep and goats aged about 6 mo and weighing, on average, 9.8 and 9.77 kg, respectively were used to investigate the effect of concentrate supplementation on intake and growth performance under grazing condition. A grazing land was developed and all the goats and sheep were allowed to graze for 7 h daily with or without supplementary concentrate feeding in a 2 x 2 factorial experiment. Herbage yield and composition during experimental period were determined in this study. The average herbage yield recorded in the month of September was significantly (P less than 0.01) higher than that harvested either in June or December. Major grass species identified in the grazing land were A. compressus (39%), I. cylindrica (24%), P. repens (18%), C. dactylon (13%) and C. rotundus (6%). The highest CP content was observed in C. rotundus (12.27%) and lowest was recorded in. I. cylindrica (9.8%). Grazing intake estimate by either grass harvesting method (0.41 vs 0.28 kg) or animal weight gain method (0.26 vs 0.23 kg) indicated that sheep consumed significantly (P less than 0.05) higher amount of herbage DM than goats. However, apparent digestibility of all proximate components of herbage did not differ significantly between sheep and goats. Significantly (P less than 0.05 to P less than 0.01) higher live weight gain (16.59 vs 3.94 g d- 1) and total DM intake (457.7 vs 253.0 g d-1) were observed in supplemented group than those of control group but there were no differences between sheep and goats for live weight gain (8.59 vs 11.80 g d-1 and DM intake (371.0 vs 339.7 g d-1). The results showed that concentrate supplementation improved growth rate and therefore, feeding of grazing goats and sheep with concentrate supplement may be suggested to optimize growth performance. Moreover, supplementation may be necessary to maintain body condition during the winter season particularly between December and January when the pasture quantity is inadequate in the grazing land.