Determination of animal unit and animal daily forage requirement of Mehraban sheep breed in Hamadan rangeland

Knowledge of animal forage requirement is necessary for determination of grazing capacity and making equilibrium between livestock and rangeland resources. Animal daily forage requirement depends on body size and forage quality. It is difficult to define a common animal unit in Iran as there are about 27 sheep breeds each with special body size and physiological features. So it is important to determine the body size of animal unit, daily metabolic energy, and the forage quality for proper management. In this study two herds of Hamadan Mehraban breed including 70 sheep (15 three years old ewes, 15 four years old ewes, 5 three years old rams, 5 four years old rams, 15 three months old and 15 six month old lambs) in three stages have been weighed. The daily forage requirement was determined by NRC (1985) tables and MAFF formula. In former, we found the daily metabolic energy requirement from the table according to the forage quality in two growth stages. The animal daily forage requirement was 1.56 and 2 kg for early and final growth stages. In latter, the daily metabolic energy requirement was calculated by fomula. The animal daily forage requirement was 1.83 and 2.34 kg for early and final growth stages.