| Summary: | Effect of Dietary Concentrate Rate on Intake, Weight Gain and Body Development in Djalonke Mossi Sheep. Three levels (75 %, 50 % and 25 %) of concentrate were used to evaluate their effects on feed intake, weight gain and body development in sheep. Forty Djalonke Mossi lambs at least twenty-four (24) months old were splited in four groups. Three groups were assigned the three levels of concentrate and fed during 84 days, and the fourth was a control, with all animals slaughtered on day one of the study. Resul indicated that : (i) dry matter intake is strongly affected (p <0.001) by the level of concentrate ; (ii) weight and linear growth do not vary greatly. However, relations between dry mater intake (DMI), nitrogen intake (NI), energy intake (El) and sheep daily gain (DG) are noticed : DG = 1.10 DMI - 10 = 1 793.19 El - 10.13 = 15.27 NI - 10.27 (R2 = 0.53 ; 0.54 ; 0.58). Furthermore, gain is inversely proportional to atlato-ischial scapulo-ischial and thoracic perimeter ; relations between live bodyweight (LBW), carcass weight (CW) and atlato-ischial (LAI), scapulo-ischial (LSI), abdominal perimeter (PA) and high of withers (HW) are noticed : LBW = -39.98 + 0.24 HW + 0.12 LAI + 0.29 LSI + 0.25 PA et CW = -33.90 + 0.16 HW + 0.06 LAI + 0.09 LSI + 0.16PA + 0.17 PT (R2 = 0.95 ; p = 0.0001) ; (iii) carcass yield is greater with feed containing more concentrate. Results also indicate that it is possible to evaluate live bodyweight and carcass weight by using linear growth of animals.
|
|---|
