Abstract

Eleven Barbados Blackbelly ewes and their 22 lambs were used to study the impact of supplementary feeding of sheep ration pellets and sprouted black-eyed beans on milk intake, and weight gain in suckling lambs during first 6 weeks of dam's lactation. The newborn lambs were separated from the dams 72 h after birth and randomly allotted to one of two groups. Lambs in Gr I were offered commercial sheep ration pellets (CSR), while lambs in Gr II, sprouted black-eyed beans (SBB) separately as creep feed from day 4 to day 42. Milk intake by suckling lambs from day 4 to 42 was obtained using a ‘weigh-suckle-weigh ’method. The average daily milk intake (ADMI), daily gain (ADG) and the ratio of ADMI: ADG for CSR and SBB were similar (P>0.05). The mean ADMI/ADG for CSR week 1–3 and SBB week 1–3 were 8.0±0.10 and 7.9±0.11, respectively and the corresponding values for CSR week 4–6 and SBB week 4–6 were 8.3±0.18 and 8.2±0.53. The ewes weighed 47.9±0.88 kg on day 2 and 45.0±0.93 kg on day 36 of lactation. The average milk yield (g/day/ewe) for the six weeks was 1009±32.1with a peak of 1151±91.8 in week 4. The estimated means for daily gain of lambs in week 1–3 and week 4–6, for the CSR and SBB groups were 62.71±0.80, 61.76±0.80, 63.85±0.80 and 65.15±0.80g, respectively. In conclusion, feeding sprouted black-eyed beans as creep feed during weeks 4 to 6 had advantage in promoting weight gain in milk fed lambs.

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