Effect of Oats Hay Supplementing on Growth Performance of Yaks and Tibetan Sheep during Cold Season
Twelve 1-year-old Tibetan sheep [BW =(27.2 ± 1.44) kg] and ten 3-year-old yaks [BW =(98.2 ± 4.35) kg] were randomly selected and divided to 2 groups (grazing group and oats hay supplementing group) to reveal effect of oats hay supplementing on growth performance of Tibetan sheep and yaks on alpine pastoral area during cold season.Animals of grazing group grazed in cool-season pasture freely,animals of oats hay supplementing group feed oat hay,and water was freely accessed through a 135-day experimental period.The result shows that (i) Grazing yaks lose weight of (-12.4 ± 1.13) kg per yak while supplementing yak gained (8.4 ± 0.76) kg per yak,which accounted to-12.5 % and 8.92 % to their initial weights,separately(P < 0.01).(ii) Grazing Tibetan sheep lose weight of (-5.7 ± 0.51) kg per Tibetan sheep while supplementing sheep gained (7.9 ± 0.73) kg per Tibetan sheep,which accounted to-20.5 % and 31.3 % to their initial weights,separately(P <0.01).(iii) Average 15-day daily weight loss of grazing animals increased with timely and ADG15 days of supplementing animals increased timely to a steady state.(iv) Net economic return was (-347.2 ± 31.7) yuan per yak for grazing yaks,and (103.5 ± 29.56) yuan per Tibetan sheep for supplementing yaks (P < 0.01);Net economic return was (-125 ± 13.3) yuan per Tibetan sheep for grazing sheep and (154.7 ± 10.2) yuan per Tibetan sheep for supplementing sheep (P <0.01).The results above indicated that oats hay supplementing was not significant in increasing breeding profit for local pastoralists;more works should be done to optimize supplementing methods.
SupplementingTibetan sheepYaksGrowth performance during cold season