The Effect of Using Panicum Mombasa Hay and Millet Hay in the diet on the Production Performance of Awassi Lambs

Abstract

The current study was conducted at Al-Dawar Research Station (30 km to the northeast of Ramadi district center in Anbar Governorate)/Ministry of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Organization/Department of Animal Resource Researches, and for the period from November 1, 2019, to February 1, 2020. This research aims to study the feeding role on the Panicum maximum Mombasa hay and Millet hay compared to the alfalfa hay and the mixing between them on the production traits of Awassi lambs. In this experiment, 20 heads of Awassi sheep were used, their ages ranged from 5 to 6 months, and their average weight was 37 ± 0.75 kg. The animals were distributed randomly into five treatments, each treatment containing 3 females and one male; all animals were fed (group feeding/treatment) during the experiment time on the same diet of concentrated forage provided at a percentage of 2% of live body weight/treatment/day. As for the rough forage, it was also provided daily/treatment, but freely, and the next morning the remainder of the concentrated and rough forage was weighed/group. The average total weight gain, the average daily weight gain, the average daily consumption, and the feed conversion efficiency were calculated, and it was observed that there were no significant differences between the treatments in the average live body weight, the total and daily weight gain, the amount of total feed intake (concentrated and rough) and the feed conversion efficiency. It can be concluded from this that the use of Panicum maximum Mombasa hay and Millet hay did not negatively affect the product performance of the Awassi lambs.