Performance of lambs weaned at 67 days of age and fed corn silage and oat hay

Abstract

This work had as objectives to evaluate the performance of lambs weaned at 67 days of age and fed with different roughage sources in confinement. Thirty animals out of Corriedale ewes mated to Hampshire Down, Ile de France and Suffolk rams, were used. After weaning the animals were fedlot and distributed in one of the following treatments: T1 - Corn silage + concentrate; T2 - Corn silage and oat hay (50% each) + concentrate; and T3 - Oat hay + concentrate. It was used a 60:40 roughage:concentrate ratio, dry matter basis. At the beginning of the experiment the animals weighed 11.51, 12.46 and 12.33 kg (P>0.05), and after nine weeks of feedlot the weights were 17.53, 19.34 and 19.35 kg (P>0.05), respectively, for T1, T2 e T3. Average daily weight gain was similar (P>0.05) among treatments. It was not observed differences (P>0.05) in weights and weight gains among the genetic groups. However, male lambs presented greater average daily weight gain than female lambs (0.120 x 0.091 kg). There were no differences in feed conversion among the treatments, however, animals from the T2 had greater dry matter intake. It can be concluded that either corn silage or oat hay can be used for feeding weaned lambs.