Animal feed resources are still deficient in total digestible nutrients (28.62 million tons) and digestible protein (1.76 million tons), which is not sufficient to meet the feeding requirement of livestock in the country. Fodder crops cover 16 to 19% of the total cropped area in the country. Shortage of fodder is a major limiting factor for livestock growth. To meet the requirement of animal, there is need to properly conserve the flush season growth of Rabi fodder like Berseem and alfalfa in their different physical forms. Pelleting of hay and other feeds for ruminants is developing rapidly as a new method of preparation for livestock feed. Pelleted feeds, particularly roughages can be self-fed more efficiently and can be handled with less cost than unpelleted feed, because they are heavier per cubic foot and because they can be handled in bulk with machinery more easily than unpelleted feeds The feeding management experiment was conducted to investigate the performance of lohi lambs raised on different levels of alfalfa hay and alfalfa pellets at Small Ruminant Training and Research Center (B Block) UVAS Ravi Campus, Pattoki. Eighteen male Lohi lambs having approximately same body weight (20 ± 3 kg) were randomly divided into three groups A, B and C of six lambs each. Lambs were fed on different physical forms of alfalfa on individual basis for 12 weeks. Group A having alfalfa pellets 100 %, group B alfalfa pellets and hay, 50:50 and group C were fed 100 % alfalfa hay. The data on Daily feed intake, weekly weight gain, feed analysis, feed digestibility, feed efficiency and comparative economics were recorded, analyzed and interpreted in the manuscript.

The mean daily feed intake on treatment A, B and C were 1170± 31.18, 851.69± 259 and 699.39± 23.74 g, respectively.. Daily feed intak showed increasing trend as the proportion of alfalfa pellet was increased in the diets. Feed intake difference was highly significant (P< 0.01) between treatments A, B and C, respectively. The mean weight gain of lambs on weekly bases was 0.8385±.00117, 0.6847±.00398 and 0.6272±0.0014 kg in treatment A, B and C, respectively. The lambs showed an increasing trend in weekly weight gain with the increase in the proportion of alfalfa pellet in the diets. The weight gain data also showed a highly significant (P< 0.01) difference between treatments and weeks.

The feed efficiency of the diets in different treatments was calculated considering the amount of feed consumed per unit of weight gain.. Mean feed consumption per kg of weight gain was of 0.0945±0.00012, 0.1060±0.00069 and 0.1196±0.0003 kg for labs on treatment A, B, and C, respectively. The diet C having 100 % alfalfa hay was found highly efficient and diet A having 100 alfalfa pellet was least efficient to convert it into one kg gain.

The comparative economics calculation of feeding experiment showed that highest daily gross margin of Rs. 9.01 was recorded in lambs under treatment C followed by treatment B (Rs. 6.086) and lowest (Rs. 0.94) on treatment A. The calves showed an increasing trend in daily gross margin as the proportion of alfalfa hay was increased in the diets and decreased with the increase in the level alfalfa pellets in the diets

CONCLUSION:

On the basis of findings it is concluded that to increase palatability, more feed consumption, achieve better gain, minimize feed wastage and most economical feeding proportion is 100 % alfalfa pellets. It is suggested that this proportion is desirable to achieve higher growth rate.