Growth performance of Awassi lambs fed calf milk replacer

Forty Awassi lambs were equally divided into two groups. Twenty subjects were artificially reared (AR) with calf milk replacer, 20 others were ewe reared (ER) and used as a control. Twenty lambs were removed from the ewes 2–3 days postpartum and moved indoors. Lambs (AR) received ad libitum calf milk replacer twice daily until liquid weaning at 4 weeks. At 15 days of age, AR lambs had ad libitum access to commercial lamb starter diet and alfalfa hay while ER lambs continued to suck their mother without any feed supplementation until weaning at 6 weeks. Average daily gain (ADG) and live weights (BW) at 2 weeks intervals were measured. ER lambs were heavier (P < 0.05) than AR lambs at 2 and 4 weeks of age but there were no body weight differences between AR and ER lambs at 6 weeks of age. Litter size had an important effect on birth weight (P < 0.01) and body weight (P < 0.05) at 2 weeks of age. Lamb survival until the 6 weeks of age was 85% for AR lambs and was higher than for ER lambs at 75%. These results show that Awassi lambs can be successfully reared on calf milk replacer at a lower cost than with ewe rearing, thus offers a potential increase in economic returns for sheep producers. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.