Effect of concentrate feed supplementation on the growth performance of crossbred sheep

Abstract

Poor-quality pastures can limit the nutritional intake of sheep, particularly during dry seasons, leading to suboptimal growth. To address this, a study was conducted at the field laboratory of Agrotechnology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh to optimize the concentrate feed supplementation for crossbred sheep. This experiment involved 20 female sheep divided into five treatment groups, with each group receiving a different level of concentrate supplementation (0, 100, 150, 200, or 250 g sheep^-1 day^-1). The sheep grazed for 10 hours daily. Every 14-day interval body weight measurements were taken in the morning before the animals were allowed to graze and concentrate feed. Statistical analysis using SAS software indicated that body weight generally increased with higher levels of concentrate supplementation, although, the differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). For the weigh at day 70, the sheep given 250 g of concentrate had the highest average body weight (18.11±1.53kg), while the group without supplementation had the lowest (13.28±2.37kg) body weight. Growth rates (g day^-1) also tended to increase with greater amount of concentrate supplementation. At 56-day of weigh, 250g concentrate supplemented group had the highest average daily weight gain (80.44±5.39 g day ^-1), and group with no concentrate supplementation had the lowest weight gain 22.22±5.55 g day^-1 (p<0.05). Concentrate feed tends to increase weight gain in sheep, with a pattern suggesting that higher levels of supplementation lead to faster growth rates. However, all day of weigh did not show statistically significant differences, indicating that factors other than concentrate feed intake might be impacting the growth rate of crossbred sheep.