Determination of Animal Unit Size and Animal Unit Requirement of Fashandy Sheep Breed Grazing on Rangelands (Case Study: Taleghan)

Information on animal requirements for determination of rangeland grazing capacity is essential. Animal requirements depend on its live weight, age, physiological condition and quality of available forage. There are more than 20 sheep breeds with different body sizes grazing in various climatic zone's rangelands of Iran, so animal unit equivalent of each breed should be determined independently. In this research, live weight of animal unit of Fashandy sheep based on average live weight of 3 and 4 year old ewes was determined. Three herds with more than 100 Fashandy ewes among existing herds in Taleghan region were selected. In each herd, 15 three year old ewes, 15 four year old ewes, 5 three year old rams, and 5 four year old rams were selected. They were weighed three times including at the time of beginning of grazing in highlands, end of grazing season in highlands, and once in winter. In each herd, also 5 three month old lambs in the beginning of grazing season and 5 six month old lambs at the end of grazing season were weighed. The amount of daily forage requirement according to live weight and energy requirement of animal unit equivalent for maintenance condition was calculated using NRC (1985) tables and MAFF (1984) formula. It was multiplied by 1.5 because of mountainous condition of rangelands and distances from watering points and villages. The SAS statistical software was used for data analyses according to factorial experiment in the form of completely random design. According to the results, the live weight of animal unit of Fashandy breed was 60.7 Kg. The average live weight of 3 and 4 year old rams were 80.3 and 85.3 kg, respectively. Live weights of 3 and 6 month old lambs were 21.4 and 37.8 kg, respectively. Therefore, animal unit equivalents for rams, 3 and 6 month old lambs were 1.36, 0.35 and 0.62 respectively. According to NRC tables, daily metabolisable energy requirement was 13.8 Mj, and based on MAFF formula it was 11.8 Mj (including that multiplied by 1.5).