Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Hedge lucerne
Desmanthus
Cowpea
Stylo
Grass fodders
Tree fodders
Subabul
Neem
Agathi
Glyricidia
Kodukapuli
Arasu
Vagai
Karuvel
Velvel
Seemaikaruvel
Sorghum
Maize
Broken rice
wheat
Groundnut cake
The kid should be allowed to suck its dam for the first three or four days so that they
can get good amount of colostrum.
Colostrum feeding is a main factor in limiting kid losses.
Cow colostrum is also efficient for lambs and kids.
Colostrum is given at the rate of 100 ml per kg live weight.
Colostrum can be preserved with 1-1.5% (vol/wt) propionic acid or 0.1%
formaldehyde. Propionic acid is preferred for preservation as it keeps the pH value
low.
The chemically treated colostrum is kept at cool place to ensure better quality.
This creep feed may be started from one month of age and up to 2-3 months of age.
The main purpose of creep feeding is to give more nutrients for their rapid growth.
The general quantity to be given to the lambs/kids is 50 – 100 gm/animal/day.
This should contain 22 per cent protein.
Antibiotics like oxytetracycline or chlortetracycline may be mixed at the rate of 15 to
25 mg/kg of feed.
Maize - 40%
Ground nut cake -30 %
Wheat bran – 10 %
Deoiled rice bran- 13 %
Molasses – 5%
Mineral mixture- 2%
Salt – 1% fortified with vitamins A, B2 and D3 and antibiotic feed supplements.
Adult animals
Pregnant animals
Pregnant animals should be allowed in good quality pasture 4-5 hours per day.
Their ration must be supplemented with available green fodder at the rate of 5 kg
per head per day.
In this period fetal growth increases 60 – 80 per cent until parturition and lack of
enough energy in the feed can cause pregnancy toxaemia in ewes. So during this
period animals should be allowed in very good quality pasture 4-5 hours per day.
In addition to grazing, animals should be fed with concentrate mixture @ 250 –350
g/animal/day.
Their ration should be supplemented with available green fodder at the rate of 7 kg
per head per day.