Trop Anim Prod 1981 6:3 245 GROWTH OF WEST AFRICAN SHEEP WEANED AT TWO DIFFERENT AGES

This study was made to investigate the effect on growth of weaning West African sheep at 56 or 84 days old, which were fed with hay and concentrate to appetite. The liveweight gains obtained to 20 weeks were 93 ± 15 g/d and were not affected by the age of weaning. Key words: Tropical sheep, weaning age, lamb growth Milk production in tropical sheep is poor and rapidly drops after lambing (Butterworth 1968;Combellas 1974; Rondon et al 1976). The poor milk production means that the lamb must consume other feedstuffs within a few weeks of birth. Early weaning means that parasite contamination of the lamb can be reduced, the ewe is able to conceive earlier and flock management is eased, however the health and normal growth of the lamb must not be compromised. In temperate breeds of sheep, lambs weaned between 42 and 126 days have grown only slightly less rapidly than those weaned in the normal manner (Hinds et a