Compensacion al menor tiempo de pastoreo con diferentes niveles de heno de alfalfa en engorde de ovinos

The impact ofvariable alfalfa hay feed replacement in fattening sheep during the dry season was evaluated at IVITA's El Mantaro Research Station in the central Andean Mantaro valley. A total of 60 castrated one-year old sheep were grazed on two hectares ofrye-grass and clover pasture for 56 days. The sheep were randomly distributed into four groups of 15 each. The control group (TO) grazed 10 hours daily, while the experimental groups grazed 8 (TI), 6 (T2) and 4 (T3) hours daily and received 3, 6 and 9 kg of alfalfa hay respectively. During the experiment, daily weight gains of 184, 167, 181 and 170 grams were registered for groups TO, TI, T2, and T3, with total gains of 10.3, 9.4, 10.1 and 9.5 kg respectively. The variation in weight gain under the four regimes was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Cost benefit analysis ( calculated at S./ 3.5 per kg excluding purchase cost ofthe sheep) yielded 4.59, 4.04, 4.24 and 3.86 for TO to T3, with profits of 38.8, 35.3, 38.2 and 35.9% respectively. The results demonstrate that alfalfa hay feed replacement compensates reduced grazing time during the dry season.