Economic Benefits Of Sheep Feeding Patterns In A Family Farm In The Hilly And Gully Area Of The Loess Plateau

The Anding district of Dingxi city is located in the central part of Gansu Province,which is commonly known as Longzhong.There are a suitable natural condition and abundant forage resources for developing the livestock industry in the region,and the grass and livestock production has become the main enterprises to implement the ecological strategy and boost the poverty alleviation.A field experiment was conducted in Hongzhuang family farm in the Anding district from June,2018 to December,2019 to improve the economic return from the grass and livestock production,promote the integration of grass and livestock industries,and explore the management of healthy sheep breeding.The study mainly evaluated the effect of the patterns of supplementary feeding and house feeding onobrychis Viciaefolia grassland on the productivity and economic benefits among the different breeds of small-tailed Han sheep and Hu sheep.The study was also combined with the SWOT method to make suggestions for the subsequent development of Hongzhuang family farm.The main result of this study are as follows:Under the same conditions of nutrition and energy supply,the weight gaining efficiency of the small-tailed Han sheep in the grazing + supplementary feeding has the highest value,34.62% higher than that in the house feeding;the weight gain of small tail Han sheep in the grazing feeding patterns was higher than that of Hu sheep.Compared with that of house feeding,the slaughter productivity and mutton quality of sheep in the grazing feeding patterns were relatively higher.(2)The cost and profit of small-tail Han sheep in the grazing feeding pattern were the lowest among the treatments.Compared with the pen feeding,grazing feeding decreased the forage cost and total cost by 87% and 29.9%,respectively,and also improved the economic benefit by 116.2%.Hence,grazing practice did not only increase the mutton quality and economic return,but also enhances the sheep production efficiency and the forage use efficiency.Therefore,grazing practice could balance the forage and livestock production and also support the healthy development of sheep industry.(3)The suggested ways to support the subsequent development of Hongzhuang family farm using SWOT method are: to transform the traditional pen feeding pattern into the grazing feeding for high-efficiency and low-risk;to make a goal of producing the mutton with high-quality and pollution-free for improved market competitiveness;to find the cooperative enterprises and conduct joint production,processing and sales;to develop the livestock production in a high-quality way.