A study on fattening Ethiopian sheep. II. Performance of Adal lambs on supplemented grazing

Abstract

The study included two trials, each of two phases, to investigate the feasibility of finishing Adal lambs on irrigated pasture and the effect of concentrate supplementation. Fifty-one ram lambs with initial mean weight of 11.9 kg and mean age of 18 week were used in phase 1 Trail 1 while phase 2 of the same trail had 50 of the lambs used in phase 1 with an average initial weight of 18.3 kg and a mean initial age of 41 weeks. Phase 1 lasted for 18 weeks while phase 2 lasted for 10 weeks. In phase 1, a concentrate supplement of 300 g/head/day increased average daily gain (p