COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT GRAINS IN THE RATIONS FOR EARLY WEANED LAMBS FROM DAIRY BREEDS | Сравнение на различни зърнени фуражи в дажбите за рано отбити агнета от млечни породи

The objectives of this experiment are to determine the possibility of gradual weaning of lambs from dairy breeds between 14 and 20 days of age, with minimal check of growth, and secondly to compare the effect of feeding whole grains of maize, barley and wheat plus pelleted protein concentrate to early weaned lambs. In the experiment with the withdrawal of a increasing part of the milk of the ewes from 14 to 19 – 20 days of age, lambs were weaned successfully in average 19.4 days of age and 8.9 kg live weight. The lambs consummate 122 g dry concentrate per animal daily at weaning time. The requirements for a doubling of the live weight at birth and a minimum consumption of 200 g of dry feed per day before weaning, apparently is not fatal. The quality of grain and especially its purity and volume weight tends to have significant effect on consumption and hence on the daily gain of the lambs. This requires the grain fed to lambs weaned very early to be cleaned after harvest. The use of maize, barley and wheat in the amount of about 50% of the ration of early weaned lambs provided practically the same rate of gain. There is a trend for consumption of less maize and lower expenditure of net energy and protein per kilogramme live weight gain, compared to the other two grains. The carcass yield was higher - P 0.05, in lambs receiving maize compared to barley or wheat. There were not significant differences in the composition of Musculus longissimus dorsi, the quality of carcasses, the weight of separable internal fat, weight of internal organs and tissue weight of the alimentary system. The exceptions are heavier small intestines of lambs fed with maize - P 0.05. The cost of feed per lamb daily, for 1 kg gain in live weight, and 1 kg of carcass was significantly lower for lambs fed maize, compare to other grains. By withdrawal of some of the milk from 14-th to 19-th day, and weaning of lambs at average 19.4 days age and 8.9 kg live weight, it is possible to milk 47.9 kg additional milk, compare to the traditional weaning of lamb at 16 kg live weight.