New approach for using heart girth for calculating energy requirements. 5. For fattening male Rahmani Sheep

Abstract: This work was carried out on growing male Rahmani sheep to investigate the effect of using heart girth (HG) for calculating feed requirements. Twenty four Rahmani lambs averaging 25.70 kg weight were divided randomly into four groups (6lambs each). Lambs were fed according to NRC (1985) allowance (G1), lamb HGx 0.015(G2), lamb HGx0.018 (G3) and lamb HGx0.020(G4). The feeding experiment lasted for 180 days (6months).
The results showed that average daily body gain (DBG) was significantly increased with G3(166.1g) and G4 (171.5g) compared with G1(157.9g) and G2(145.0g)and the differences between G3 and G4 were not significant.
The feed conversion and economical efficiency were better with the decrease in daily intake but their values were usually approximately between G1and G3 and were very sheep (worse) with G4. Moreover, serum Urea-N, creatinine and cholesterol conentration were significantly higher with G4 compared with G1 and G2 and the differences among G1, G2 and G3 were not significant. Accordingly, it could be recommended to use heart girth (G3) as a good alternative to NRC allowances (G1)to determine the animal requirements of DM, CP, TDN and SE according to (G1) to determine the animal requirements of DM, OM, CP, TDN and SE according to the following equations:-
DM requirement (g) = Lamp HG x 27.36
OM requirement (g) = = Lamp H G x 24.93
CP requirement (g) = = Lamp H G x 3.45
TDN requirement (g) == Lamp H G x 17.47
SE requirement (g) = = Lamp H G x 14.44
Keyword: Sheep- growth performance- feed conversion- heart girth- nutrient requirements.

Publication year

2002

Availability location

معهد بحوث الانتاج الحيوانى-شارع نادى الصيد- الدقى- الجيزة

Availability number

Organization Name

Animal Production Research Institute (APRI)

City

المنصورة

serial title

Proceeding, 1st Annual Science, Conference of Animal & Fish Production

Author(s) from ARC