Improving Meat Productivity of Sheep under Smallholder System in India with Crop Residues Based Complete Feed

Under the traditional rearing systems of sheep in India, meat productivity is very poor due to severe nutritional stress during most parts of the year. Utilizing locally available crop residues as feed ingredients in the form of complete feeds has the potential to improve productivity of rearing systems. A field study has been carried out in the premises of small holder famers to compare growth performances and carcass yields of ram lambs reared under traditional extensive grazing system with that of stall feeding with crop residues based complete feeds. Complete feed was prepared utilizing maize straw and ground nut straw as roughage components and offered to sheep under stall feeding. After 120 days of feeding, the animals under stall feeding reached higher (P<0.01) ADG of 122 g when compared to the control group reared under traditional rearing system (77 g). The dressing percentage was also higher in the stall fed group (50.4%) than in the control (47.6%). It was found that the meat productivity of sheep increased by 36% under stall feeding through nutritional intervention by utilizing locally available crop residues as roughage component in complete feed.