Comparative study of body weight gain in sheep of different age groups raised semi-intensively in Minna, Nigeria.

Abstract

A twelve week old experiment was conducted on the comparative study of body weight gain in sheep of different age groups raised semi-intensively. Twelve sheep of different age groups were allocated to three treatments of four replicates: treatment one (0-6months),treatment two (1-2years) and treatment three (2 years and above), respectively. The animals were weighed weekly using mechanical weighing scale before they were allowed to go out for grazing in the morning. There were highly significant differe nces in body weight gains at 5 % (p<0.05) and 1% (p<0.05) levels respectively between the three treatment groups. The level of variability in standard error of means is higher in treatment two(T2). It was concluded that body weight gain differs significantly in different age groups of sheep raised semi-intensively.