Comparative Study on Growth Performance in Lambs Reared under Organic and Conventional Systems

Abstract

Aim of the current research was to compare the growth performance in finishing lambs reared under organic production system to performances of lambs from conventional systems, under highland pastures conditions. Two genotypes were used, purebred Turcana lambs and F1 German Blackheaded x Turcana dual-breeds, reared under two production systems, conventional versus organic. In addition, each of the production system and genotype had two experimental variants, with and without concentrates allowance, resulting 8 experimental groups. Under conventional system, lambs registered average daily gains (ADG) ranging between 258.0±0.12 and 124.0±0.20 g/day, with both genotype and experimental variant significantly (p≤0.05) influencing the growth rates. Under organic production, ADG values in lambs ranged between 227.3±0.12 and 94.3±0.08 g/day, with the factors taken into account influencing significantly (p≤0.001) the growth rates. It was concluded that production system, genotype and concentrates allowance significantly influence growth rates in finishing lambs