Ledin, Inger
- Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
The effects of different group sizes on feed intake, growth and behaviour in penned kids and lambs were studied in an experiment (Exp. 1) with 30 kids and 30 lambs used in 3 periods. In each period, animals were divided into 5 group sizes. The group sizes were 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 animals per pen. In a second experiment (Exp. 2) 36 kids and 36 lambs were allotted to two groups of 1 and 5 animals per group. The diet consisted of Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) and Acacia (Acacia mangium) foliages, sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum) and concentrate. The foliages were given ad libitum, equal to 130% of intake of fresh matter of the group the previous day, and concentrate and sugar-cane were given at a level of 10 g dry matter (DM)/kg initial body weight. The time for each period in Exp. 1 was 21 days, with the last 7 days for data collection. The behaviour observations were done during the last 4 days of each data collection period. The time for Exp. 2 was 84 days. In Exp.1, the kids had a higher total DM intake (DMI) (P=0.011) and DMI of Jackfruit (P
Keywords
Goat kids; Lambs; Group size; Feed intake; Gro
Published in
Small Ruminant Research
2007, volume: 72, pages: 187-196
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Veterinary Science
Animal and Dairy Science
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smallrumres.2006.10.010
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/14830