Effect of Total Mixed Ration Based Complete Pellet Feed on the Performances of Stall Fed Native Sheep

Abstract

A complete pellet feed was developed using 40 % roughage (Rice straw) and 60 % concentrate (Rice polish 50 %, Maize crush 16 %, Soybean meal 20 %, Molasses 10 %, Salt 2 %, DCP 1 %, Vitaminmineral premix 0.5 %, Pellet binder 0.5 %) for commercial sheep production under stall feeding system. To know the effect of complete pellet feed on animal performances, both on-station and on-farm trials were conducted in growing sheep. The results of the experiment demonstrated that in the traditional system of rearing; only 22.42 g daily weight gain was observed. While, feeding of complete pellet feed achieved 84.98 g, and 100.67 g daily weight gain at on-farm and on-station condition respectively suggesting that pelleting enhanced the efficiency of utilization of feed. However, no differences were observed for the feed cost per kg weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) among the pellet feeding group and other group. But results suggest that complete pellet feed would be more economical for commercial sheep production under the stall-fed condition and farmers would be more benefited using complete pellet feed compared to conventional grass or urea molasses straw (UMS) and concentrate based feeding system. No disease or clinical symptoms were observed in the animals during the experimental period, suggesting that pellet feeds are well accepted by the sheep and results in better growth rate.
 SAARC J. Agri., 18(2): 157-166 (2020)

Feeding of Lambs With Improved Pelleted Feed

“…Higher daily weight gain was observed in the pelleted-fed group indicating that pelleting increased the digestibility and non-selectivity in feed intake. A similar result was also found by Roy et al (2010) and Ahmed et al (2020). The results from the ANOVA for the growth performance of lambs depending from the physical form of diet indicate that there was a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) between the test and control group of lambs in the 5 th and the 6 th week of the feeding trial (Table 6).…”

Effect of Rearing System and Physical form of the Total Mixed Ration on Growth Performance of Local Male Lambs

“…The pelleted diet was superior to the loose diet in terms of feeding efficiency (223, 172 gm weight gain / kg dry matter ), which may be attributable to the increased digestibility of nutrients as a result of pelleting the feed and the absence of energy losses during digestion [16]. The percentage of dry matter intake relative to body weight did not differ substantially between the loose and pelleted diets (3.3% and 3.01%), our results did not agree with [19], what he found to be the percentage of dry matter intake relative to body weight significant differences between the loose and pelleted diets. The pelleted diet produced 1 kilogram of weight gain at a significantly lower cost (4,238 Iraqi dinars) than the loose diet (5,557 Iraqi dinars), this result agrees with [21] while [19], no significant difference was observed in the cost of producing 1 kg of weight gain between the loose and pelleted diets.…”

“…Concerning the effect of the physical form of the total mixed ration on feeding performance, the results indicated that there was no significant difference between the loose and pelleted ration forms in terms of feed intake (1130, 1168 gm/day respectively) and dry matter intake (1035, 1068 gm/day respectively ). Numerous previous studies demonstrated that pelleted diets significantly increased feed and dry matter consumption in comparison to loose diets [18][19][20][21]. The process of compressing feed into pellet reduces the feed's volume and increases its density, resulting in a decrease in the rumen full and a subsequent increase in the amount of voluntary feed intake [20,22].…”

Environmental adaptability, morphometric features with reproductive and productive potentialities of indigenous sheep in Bangladesh

“…Sultana et al [ 73 ] reported a similar range of DM, OM, CP, and ADF digestibility and N-balance in the same age group of lambs fed different diets. Native lambs were fed pelleted total mixed rations (TMRs) instead of traditional loose concentrate with forage for fattening, and results showed that feed intake and average daily gain were higher when fed pelleted TMR, but nutrients apparent total tract digestibility and blood metabolites were not affected [ 74 ]. Similar findings were made by Islam et al [ 75 ] on Garole sheep, who concluded that the complete feed system (TMR) is one of the latest developments in the feeding regime to make the best possible use of locally available feed resources.…”

“…All the available types of native lambs have the potential for commercial lamb production, especially coastal lambs, which grow faster in terms of daily weight gain [ 8 ]. With concentrate supplementation at 1.5% body weight of the ewe throughout late pregnancy [ 52 , 82 ]; straw-based complete pellet feed that comprises 40% roughage (rice straw) and 60% concentrate [ 74 ]; and Moringa leaf or Moring foliage as an alternative for conventional concentrate mixtures [ 69 , 73 , 97 ]. Because the cost-effectiveness of lamb production is strongly affected by nutritional management during the production cycle, breed, sex, LS, birth weight, body weight, age, season, location, flock size, and management system also influence the growth and production performances of lamb [ 4 ].…”