Improving Tibetan sheep daily weight gain by concentrate in the cold season to overcome overgrazing on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Overgrazing and grassland degradation are ongoing concerns for the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. There is a need to have fewer numbers of grazing animal units (sheep, yak and dzo (yak-cattle cross)) on the grasslands.  The objective of this study was to investigate a proper forage to raise Tibetan sheep and prevent grassland from overgrazing .A diet that would give faster weight gains, and improve efficiency was investigated on 18 castrated Tibetan sheep by measuring the effects on performance using three different concentrate processing methods (Non-processed concentrate + oat grass, Steam flaked concentrate + oat grass, Steam flaked concentrate + silage oat grass). The results showed that a flaked concentrate feed mixed with silage oat grass had the highest average daily gain (ADG) among three different concentrate processing methods. This would thus shorten the lifecycle and reduce the number of Tibetan sheep and therefore, decrease the grazing pressure on the open grasslands.