Integration of sheep in mango-Calopogonium muconoids hortipasture

The mango-Calapogonium muconoides hortipasture yielded 2.07 ton of dry fodder biomass/ha containing 12.35 and 62.73% of DCP and TDN respectively. Madras red ram lambs were fed in three groups viz., conventional ration containing concentrate mixture and napier-bajra grass in 40:60 ratio (T₁), C. muconoides hay alone (T₂) and C. muconoides hay and groundnut haulms in 1:1 ratio (T₃) for 90 days. The growth rate, feed intake, feed efficiency and the digestibility of nutrients were comparable in all the groups except that of CP, which was depressed significantly (P<0.01) in T₃. The DCP intake of lambs in T₂ was significantly (P<0.01) higher and the TDN intake was comparable in all the groups. It was concluded that C. muconoides hay supplemented with groundnut haulms (1:1) can be fed to growing lambs.