Effect of flooring type on growth performance & FCR of weaned Vizianagaram lambs

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of flooring type on growth performance of weaned Vizianagaram lambs reared on moorum (T1), concrete (T2) and rubber-mat flooring (T3). The overall mean body weights (kg) were 14.65±0.30 (T1), 14.50±0.27 (T2) and 14.69±0.28 (T3) with no significant differences. Total weight gain was 8.00±0.35, 7.80±0.44 and 8.47±0.20 kg for T1, T2 and T3 respectively, with lambs on rubber mats showing 8.6% higher gain than concrete-reared lambs. Average daily gain was 87.89±3.32, 85.71±3.10 and 93.11±3.60 g/day across T1, T2 and T3 groups, respectively. Daily feed intake, dry matter intake (kg/day) were1.42±0.12, 1.38±0.11 and 1.50±0.11, 0.58±0.17, 0.57±0.17 and 0.60±0.17 while DMI per metabolic body weight (g/day) was 77.34±6.16, 76.67±6.20 and 79.87±6.07 for T1, T2 and T3, respectively. Feed conversion ratio was 6.90±0.24, 6.83±0.24 and 6.61±0.18 for T1, T2 and T3, with no-significant differences. Results indicate that lambs reared on rubber-mat flooring exhibited numerically superior growth and feed efficiency, though differences were statistically non-significant.