FOURWING SALTBUSH AS A WINTER MAINTENANCE FORAGE FOR SHEEP IN UPLAND BALOCHISTAN

Sixteen Harnai lambs were used in a completely randomized design to study the nutritive value of fourwing saltbush as a winter maintenance browse in comparison to native range grazing with or without protein and energy supplementation at Tomagh Range Livestock Research Station, in Loralai District, Balochistan. The animals were divided into four groups of four lambs each. These four groups were assigned four treatments at random: fourwing saltbush grazing alone, range grazing plus lucerne hay (100 g/head/day), range grazing plus barley grain (100 g/head/day) and range grazing alone for ten weeks. The results indicate that the two range grazing plus supplementation treatments produced weight gains which were not significantly different from each other (p < 0.05). Both of these treatments yielded significantly higher weight gains (p < 0.05) than did range grazing alone except for the last week of the study. Fourwing saltbush grazing provided cumulative weight gains at 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 weeks which were not significantly different from the range grazing plus lucerne hay treatment and gained an average of 6 percent in body weight over the 10 week period of study. The carrying capacity for sheep of a mature stand of fourwing saltbush was approximately 20 Sheep-kg-days (SKD) of grazing per cubic meter of foliage. Results of this study suggest that under fourwing saltbush grazing alone, lambs do not only maintain their body weights but can also gain weight in winter.