Energy and economic values of greenhouse sheds in Taipusi, Inner Mongolia

Winter grazing in northwestern China is exacerbating the grassland condition and counterproductive toanimal production, as energy gained from the practice is less than that lost to the cold and exercise requirements. Todemonstrate this, 40 ewes from two farms in Taipusi County, Inner Mongolia were kept throughout a winter insidemakeshift greenhouse sheds while another 40 ewes were left grazing in the traditional manner. Results show that theaverage temperature inside the greenhouse was 10°C, 14°C and 4°C warmer than outside at 9 am, 12 noon and 9 pm,respectively (all P < 0.001) while ewes inside the greenhouse lost 3 kg less bodyweight than those outside (P < 0.001).A modelling analysis using the authors' decision support system suggests that the proposed method can savemetabolisable energy up to 2 MJ dayâ€Â'1 headâ€Â'1 and, at the gross economic benefit of RMB 1,191 per year, the initial costcan be paid off within three seasons.