BODY CONFORMATION AND PERFORMANCE RESPONSES OF RAMS TO DIFFERENT LEVELS OF CONCENTRATE

Résumé

The experimental objective was to evaluate the effects of varying levels of concentrate supplementation and breed on liveweight and body conformation traits. A 2 x 3 factorial experimental design was utilised in which ten adult rams aged between 24 and 36 months each of Balami, Uda and Yankasa sheep and averagely weighing 34.20, 35.35 and 31.80 kg, respectively were balanced by breed and randomly allocated into 6 treatments (5 rams per treatment). Fortnight measurements of chest girth, withers height, body length, body condition score and liveweight were taken. Data were analysed in SAS (2002). Rams fed concentrate at 2% of body weight recorded the highest mean liveweight of 41.9 ± 0.7 kg. Highly significant breed interactions with concentrate levels (P<0.05) resulted in the heaviest (46.3 kg) and lightest (35.5 kg) average liveweights in Balami and Yankasa rams, respectively supplemented at the 2% of body weight. Body conformation and liveweight responses to concentrate supplementation significantly varied between breeds. This finding will aid sheep farmers in making informed choices about appropriate breed selection in their enterprises when supplementing with different levels of concentrates for growth improvement as a strategic pathway for the early attainment of market weights in rams. It was concluded that supplementation of concentrate at 2% of body weight resulted in increased body conformations over and above that observed in 1% of body weight. Similarly, breed influence showed that Balami rams performed better than Uda and Yankasa rams.