Abstract 637

C E Mejía*, M Rosales**, J E Vargas** and E Murgueitio**

*Instituto Mayor Campesino (IMCA), AA116 Buga, Valle, Colombia, **Convenio Interinstitucional para la Producción Agropecuaria en el Valle del rio Cauca (CIPAV), AA7482, Cali, Colombia

Livestock Research for Rural Development 1991 3(1): 53-58.

A flock of African hair sheep of approximately 80 ewes and 4 rams of the local "pelibuey" or "West African" breed, in all stages of the reproduction cycle, had free access to chopped fresh sugar cane tops and/or King grass forage (offered amounts were 150% of consumption to facilitate selection), a multinutritional block (10% urea, 50% molasses) and a mixture of poultry litter and rice polishings (ratio of 9:1). They also received fresh foliage of Gliricidia sepium at the rate of 3 kg/100 kg liveweight/day. The offspring had the same nutritional regime as their dams (given in a creep feeder to which the ewes did not have access). Weaning was at 12kg bodyweight and slaughter (or first mating) at 30kg.

The overall dry matter intake was 4.5% of liveweight of which the forage component (cane tops and King grass) represented 72% of the total dry matter, the supplements of gliricidia (9.3), poultry litter (10.6), rice polishings (1.0) and multinutritional blocks (6.2) accounting for the remainder. The mean lambing interval was 284±85 days (n=44), the litter size 1.16 (n=144), birth weight 2.32±0.52 kg (n=167), pre-weaning growth rate 106±34 g/day (n=84) for a weaning age of 129±46 days. Mortality perinatal was 5.5% and from birth to weaning 10.4%.