Effect of oral administration of protected DL- methionine on wool quality and production of pregnant Merino hoggets raised in the argentinian Patagonia

• Ana L. Frey ^[1] ; Z. Vitezica ^[1] ; A. Cesa ^[1] ; G. Melzner ^[1]
  1. [1] Facultad de Agronomía, U. Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Localización: Archivos Latinoamericanos de Producción Animal, ISSN 1022-1301, ISSN-e 1022-1301, Vol. 11, Nº. 3, 2003
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • Little is known about the effect of protected methionine supplemented to grazing pregnant ewes. In the present trial, oral administration of protected DL- methionine was tested in terms of: mean fibre diameter (MFD), growth of fibre length (L), unwashed fleece weight (UFW) and staple strength (SS) in pregnant hoggets grazing Patagonian ranges. The relationship between the coeficient of variation of MFD (CVMFD) and (SS) was also established. One hundred Merino hoggets were allotted at random to ten groups of ten animals each. Individual groups were the experimental unit. Five groups were supplemented with protected DL-methionine (PM) at 2.5 g.animal-1.day-1, the rest were control (C). Mean fibre diameter was measured in samples from the shoulder region. The “dye banding” technique was used to assess L. Data were analyzed according to a lineal model. Differences for UFW were significant (p0.05) nor for CVMFD were significative, values for the latter ranged from 17 to 19 %. Supplementation with protected DL-methionine allowed to improve production parameters, therefore it is a technique worthwhile considering when feeding pregnant hoggets grazing rangelands.