Effect of Dietary Types on Feed Intakes, Growth Performance and Economic Benefit in Tibetan sheep and Yaks on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau during Cold Season

Pastoralists on the Tibetan alpine rangeland suffered great economic loss in cold season, due to serious live-weight loss of domestic livestock under traditional grazing management. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of dietary types (crude protein levels) on feed intakes, growth performance an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2017-01, Vol.12 (1), p.e0169187-e0169187
Main Authors: Xu, Tianwei, Xu, Shixiao, Hu, Linyong, Zhao, Na, Liu, Zhe, Ma, Li, Liu, Hongjin, Zhao, Xinquan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alpine environments
Animal Feed
Animal Husbandry - economics
Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
Animals
Argali
Biology
Biology and Life Sciences
Body weight gain
Body weight loss
Breeding
Cattle
Cold
Cold season
Cold weather
Diet
Dry matter
Economics
Efficiency
Environmental aspects
Evolution
Feed efficiency
Feeding Behavior - physiology
Feeds
Food and nutrition
Grazing
Herbivores
Intakes
Kobresia
Laboratory animals
Livestock
Medicine and Health Sciences
Metabolites
Nutrition research
Oats
Pasture
Pasture management
People and Places
Physiological aspects
Proteins
Rangelands
Seasons
Sheep
Sheep, Domestic
Social Sciences
Tibet
Total mixed rations
Weight loss
Yaks
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Summary:Pastoralists on the Tibetan alpine rangeland suffered great economic loss in cold season, due to serious live-weight loss of domestic livestock under traditional grazing management. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of dietary types (crude protein levels) on feed intakes, growth performance and economic returns of local Tibetan sheep and yaks during cold season. Twenty-four yearling Tibetan sheep (25.29±3.95 kg LW) and twenty two-year-old yaks (100.62±4.55 kg LW) with familiar body conditions were randomly assigned to four groups, fed oats hay (OH), oats silage (OS), total mixed ration (TMR) and traditionally grazed on the local cool-season pasture (TG), respectively, over a 135-day experiment. Daily dry matter intake was determined; all animals were weighed at the beginning and every 15 days of the 135-day experiment. Then, the total live-weight gain, average daily live-weight gain, gain rate, feed efficiency and net economic benefit were calculated. Results indicated that feed and nutrient intakes (DMI, DMI/kg LW, DMI/kg LW0.75 and CPI) of TMR, OH and OS were higher than TG (P < 0.05). Grazing animals suffered serious live-weight loss, while TMR, OS and OH significantly (P < 0.05) improved total live-weight gain and gain rate in both Tibetan sheep and yaks during the entire experiment. TMR worked better in animal performance and feed efficiency, obtained the highest breeding profit in both Tibetan sheep and yaks among four treatments (P < 0.05). When expressed on net economic benefit, TMR shared the highest net economic benefit in Tibetan sheep, OH shared the highest net economic benefit in yaks, but, no significant difference of net economic benefit in yaks fed TMR and OH diets was determined (P > 0.05). Results indicated that TMR was a reasonable diet in promoting feed intakes, animal performance, feed efficiency and economic returns in domestic livestock, which should be considered by local herdsmen to increase their breeding profit during cold season.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0169187