Efecto de dos sistemas de alojamiento y del sexo sobre el comportamiento productivo de corderos durante el engorde

Abstract

Raised pens (RP) have been promoted in the tropical regions of Mexico as a housing system to improves the productivity of growing male and female lambs. They showed high acceptance among farmers, however, there is a lack of studies about the RP system and the use of environmental enrichment in the system. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the productive performance of growing lambs (male and female) housed on RP or ground level (GL) using shaving woods as bedding material. Thirty-two lambs (15 males and 17 females) were used, with an average initial live weight and age of 10.54 ± 1.89 kg and 66.54 ± 22.43 days, respectively. Data were analysed by Variance Analysis considering main factors: housing system (RP and GL) and sex (male and female), and dependant variables: daily weight gain (DWG), feed intake (DMI), feed conversion (FC) and final body weight (FBW). The housing system did not affect DWG, DMI, FC and FBW (P > 0.05). Males presented higher values in all productive indicators than females (except FC). Under the conditions of this study, the productive performance of growing lambs housed either RP or GL was similar.