Comparison of oats/vetch fodder crop and natural pasture for fattening Ethiopian highland sheep
1995
Sisay Lema (IAR, Addis Abeba (Ethiopia))
The potential of forage-based rations to fatten sheep was tested using 40 milk-tooth highland ram lambs fed oats/vetch hay or grazed unimproved natural pasture. All animals were weighed on day 1 and fortnightly thereafter for 165 days starting mid October 1992. At the end, a total of 16 rams were slaughtered for carcass evaluation and the remaining lambs were presented for sale to estimate market value. Body weight increased linearly and faster in those fed oats/vetch (67.5 vs 33.5 g/head/day; P less than 0.001), and thus the animals were heavier at the end of the trial (25.2 vs 20.1 kg; P less than 0.001). Rams fed oats/vetch had heavier carcass weight, high dressing percent, high hindquarter percent, lower proportions of head and viscera in relation to body weight and were fatter. At the market lambs fed oats/vetch were not only preferred by buyers but their sale prices were also higher on both per animal (ETB 109.10 vs 69.17) and per kilogram body weight (4.45 vs 3.26 ETB) basis. The results indicated the ability to fatten sheep using oats/vetch fodder crop which can be produced at the smallholder level as it can readily be incorporated into the existing crop-fallow system.
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