Intake and feeding efficiency in feed-lot lambs

Abstract

The present experiment was carried out in order to evaluate the intake and feed efficiency in fed-lot sheep as function of the body weight (BW) variation. Data from three experiments with 50 feedlot lambs maintained in individual metabolic cages and fed diets composed of 50:50 roughage:concentrate were used. The experiment lasted 120 days; every 21 days the animals were weighed and the dry matter intake and body weight change were daily done. The intake was determined by checking daily the feed offer level and orts. The increased in animals body weight incremented the dry matter intake in 30.8g/kg of body weight/day, but promoted reduction of 0.0318% when the intake was expressed as percentage of BW. In addition, the advance of body weight affected negatively the feed conversion (FC), where animals with BW of 30 kg showed estimated FC of 4.55 of dry matter/kg of BW gain, while animals with BW of 45 kg have would food conversion of 7.03 kg of DM/kg of BW gain.