Efficiency of wool production of grazing sheep. 4. Forage intake and its relationship to wool production

1977 ◽  
Vol 17 (85) ◽  
pp. 247 ◽  
Author(s):  
JP Langlands ◽  
GE Donald
Keyword(s):  
Wool Production ◽  
Wool Growth ◽  
Forage Intake ◽  
Grazing Sheep

Relationships between the quantity of forage consumed, and the wool growth of penned and grazing sheep, were examined in two experiments. Wool production was proportional to intake over the range of intakes examined.

Early weaning of grazing sheep. 2. Performance of ewes

1976 ◽  
Vol 16 (79) ◽  
pp. 156 ◽  
Author(s):  
JL Corbett ◽  
EP Furnival
Keyword(s):  
Genotypic Differences ◽  
Early Weaning ◽  
Wool Production ◽  
Wool Growth ◽  
Grazing Sheep ◽  
Fleece Weight

Two similar groups of Corriedale ewes were formed from a flock of 231. These were grazed on separate phalaris (Phalaris tuberosa) pasture at 8.6 or 17.3 ewes ha-1, respectively high and low nutritional planes, from seven weeks before their first lambing in spring 1968 until after their second lambing. Within each group the 1968 lambs were weaned by removal to other pastures at six or 12 weeks of age, or were left unweaned for 21 or 29 weeks in the high and low planes respectively. Birth weights in 1968 did not differ between planes, and for all ewes an increase of 1 kg in lamb birthweight was associated with a reduction in clean wool production during the last seven weeks of pregnancy of 0.22 � 0.11 g d-1. Pregnancy appeared to reduce by about one half the expression of genotypic differences between sheep in wool producing ability, and reduced 12 months clean fleece weight by about 5 per cent. Low plane ewes produced significantly less milk containing less solids. Liveweight gains and rates of wool growth were reduced by lactation and increased after weaning, wool growth the more slowly. Both rates of recovery were less in the low plane where, unlike the high plane, lactation appeared to reduce expression of genotypic differences in wool production. Clean fleece weights were reduced by about 5 and 10 per cent by lactations of respectively six weeks and five months duration. At subsequent joining a smaller proportion of the low compared with high plane ewes was marked by the ram and of these a smaller proportion produced lambs. Within the low plane, the longer the preceding lactation the lower the liveweight at second joining and lambing, and the lower the mating and lambing percentages. The results indicated that when there was a shortage of feed at and after lambing the performance of ewes would be improved by weaning their lambs at about six weeks. Ewe liveweights were consistently greater after six week weaning than after later weaning, a result confirmed in other experiments on weaning within fixed total areas of pasture.

The effect of oral administration of methionine, bentonite, methionine/bentonite and methionine/oil homogenates on wool production of grazing and penned sheep in a semi-arid tropical environment

1992 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 435 ◽  
Author(s):  
DH Cobon ◽  
RGA Stephenson ◽  
PS Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Treatment ◽  
Ammonia Concentration ◽  
Factorial Analysis ◽  
Individual Treatment ◽  
Wool Production ◽  
Wool Growth ◽  
Grazing Sheep ◽  
Main Effects ◽  
Semi Arid

Penned and grazing sheep were supplemented in 3 experiments with either methionine (Me 2.5 g/sheep.day), bentonite (Bent 5 or 10 g), Me + Bent (1 : 2 and 1 : 4) or Me/oil homogenates. These supplements were added to the drinking water or in molasses-based licks for treatment periods of 4-6 weeks duration. The effects of supplements on wool growth, liveweight, and ammonia concentration in rumen liquor were determined. In experiment 1, penned sheep fed a maintenance diet (750 g/sheep.day) of pelleted lucerne and supplemented via the drinking water, showed increased (P<0.05) mean wool growth for the 4 treatment periods of 31% (Me + bent), 16% (Bent), 18% (Me/tallow) and 21% (Me). Factorial analysis revealed main effects of 12% for bentonite (P<0.05) and 17% for Me (P<0.01) supplements. In experiment 2, grazing sheep supplemented via the drinking water, increased (P<0.01) wool growth over 5 treatment periods by up to 32% (Me + bent), 15% (Bent), 20% (Me) and 26% (Me/oil). In experiment 3, penned sheep fed a maintenance diet of pelleted lucerne were supplemented with molasses licks containing Me, Bent, or Me + bent, mixed using either artesian bore water or rain water. No individual treatment effect on wool growth was recorded. However, factorial analysis revealed an 18% wool growth advantage (P<0.05) for bentonite supplements mixed in artesian bore water. Treatment had no consistent effect on liveweight of sheep or level of ammonia in rumen liquor. Responses in wool production to supplements were greatest when rumen ammonia values were >5 mg%. Considerable variation in apparent wool response occurred between treatments and treatment periods for both bentonite and methionine supplements. The greatest responses to methionine supplements occurred in experiments 1 and 2 when basal wool production in the control treatments was lowest. The homogenisation procedures used to prepare Me/oil supplements, did not demonstrate any consistent advantages in terms of extra wool response.

Efficiency of wool production of grazing sheep. 3. The use of sulphur-containing amino acids to stimulate wool growth

1970 ◽  
Vol 10 (47) ◽  
pp. 665 ◽  
Author(s):  
JP Langlands
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Peritoneal Cavity ◽  
Sheep Grazing ◽  
Merino Sheep ◽  
Wool Production ◽  
Wool Growth ◽  
Grazing Sheep ◽  
Native Pastures

Merino sheep grazing native and improved pastures were given up to 2.2 g DL-methionine each day through an abomasal cannula. Wool growth of sheep grazing improved and native pastures was increased significantly by up to 30 and 41 per cent respectively. Nine sheep with abomasal camulae were maintained in pens, and were infused into the abomasum with 7 g DL-methionine per week given on either one, two, or seven days each week. Wool growth was significantly increased by daily infusions of DL-methionine but the response was less when the methionine was given on only one or two days each week. Dorset Horn wethers were given single injections of up to 50 g DL-methionine or L-cystine subcutaneously or into the peritoneal cavity. The rate of excretion of urinary sulphur was recorded following the injection. DL-methionine was rapidly excreted but L-cystine was excreted more slowly. In a series of trials quantities of DL-methionine, methionine hydroxy analogue (MHA) or L-cystine were injected subcutaneously or intra-peritoneally into grazing Merino sheep. DL-methionine did not increase wool growth and MHA was toxic. Twenty-eight g L-cystine given as two compressed pellets each month into the peritoneal cavity increased wool growth by approximately 22 per cent over the 8-week experim6ntal period.

Supplementary feeding of Merino wethers grazing weed-free stubble pastures

1981 ◽  
Vol 21 (110) ◽  
pp. 272 ◽  
Author(s):  
LG Butler
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Field Trial ◽  
Compensatory Growth ◽  
Supplementary Feeding ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Apparent Digestibility ◽  
Wool Production ◽  
Wool Growth ◽  
Wheat Stubble

A field trial was conducted in the Wimmera region of Victoria to investigate the effect of several supplements on 4-year-old Merino wethers grazing a weed-free wheat stubble for 3 months, The four treatments were: a control (no supplement), urea/molasses block, 100 g/head day-1 of lupin grain, and 2 g urea plus 0.5 g Na2SO4 l-1 in the drinking water. Twenty sheep per treatment were used, and liveweight change and wool growth were measured. Although all groups lost weight, the lupin group lost only 0.5 kg per head over the 3 months of the trial, and was 3.8 kg heavier (P <0.01) than the control group, while the urea/molasses group was 2.2 kg heavier (P <0.01) than the control group. There was no effect of the urea plus sulfur supplement in the drinking water on liveweight or wool production. The urea/molasses block did not affect wool production but lupin grain stimulated wool production by 0.08 kg (P <0.05). The sheep were weighed and shorn four and a half months after the trial (August), during which time all groups grazed together on green feed. The experimental liveweight differences had disappeared, apparently due to compensatory growth. In addition, a digestibility trial was conducted in an attempt to explain some of the field results. The treatments were designed to simulate those used in the field. Lupin grain stimulated intake by 129 g day-1 (P <0.05) but had no effect on apparent digestibility of straw. The treatment simulating the urea/ molasses block (urea plus sulfur plus sucrose in the drinking water) stimulated intake by 159 g day-l (P <0.05) and tended to increase digestibility (P > 0.05). It was concluded that supplementary feeding of Merino wethers grazing weed-free stubble is unlikely to be an economic farm practice.

Effects of weaner nutrition on sire and flock rankings: a re-analysis of historical data

2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (12) ◽  
pp. 1100
Author(s):  
B. J. McGuirk
Keyword(s):  
Growth Response ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Scale Type ◽  
Genetic Merit ◽  
Wool Production ◽  
Log Transformation ◽  
Wool Growth ◽  
Nutritional Effects ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Fleece Weight

Early work in the 1950s on the wool growth response of sheep from diverse genotypes for wool production in response to varying planes of nutrition at pasture did not show the significant genotype × environment interactions exhibited in later pen studies with the same or very similar genotypes. However, this early study used a log-transformation on all traits to adjust nutritional effects for scale. Re-analysis of the original (i.e. untransformed) data shows that superior genetic merit for clean fleece weight, different sire progeny groups or selection flocks is more apparent when hogget ewes are fed a high plane of nutrition at pasture. However, only in the case of flocks was the interaction statistically significant, and this interaction was insignificant when data were either log-transformed, or when an appropriate test that accounts for scale-type effects was applied. When left untransformed, the data are, thus, in agreement with the subsequent pen studies that examined data on untransformed clean wool production.

Stimulation of wool growth by thyroxine implantation. I. Liveweight changes and wool growth of fine-wool Merino wethers

1964 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 657 ◽  
Author(s):  
LJ Lambourne
Keyword(s):  
Dose Rate ◽  
Fibre Length ◽  
Dual Purpose ◽  
Wool Production ◽  
Wool Growth ◽  
Body Tissues ◽  
Four Seasons ◽  
Lower Body Weight ◽  
Native Pastures ◽  
Fleece Weight

Groups of 20 and 30 fine-wool Merino wethers were treated with L-thyroxine and their subsequent liveweight changes and wool production studied under a variety of grazing conditions for a year. Treatments comprised : (1) Single implantations of 60 mg in autumn, winter, spring, or summer. (2) Repeated implantations at all four seasons of 30, 60, or 90 mg. (3) Weekly subcutaneous injection of 7 mg in aqueous solution. These groups were grazed with untreated wethers on improved native pastures at one to two sheep per acre. (4) Repeated 60 mg implantations at four seasons in wethers grazed on native pasture providing a lower level of nutrition. (5) Repeated 60 mg implantations at four seasons in wethers grazed on sown pasture providing a higher level of nutrition. After every implantation there was a loss of 5–10 lb liveweight — more pronounced and more prolonged in the wethers given greater amounts of thyroxine, and more prolonged in those at lower levels of nutrition. Deaths occurred in several groups, increasing with dose rate or with poorer nutrition up to 30–50% of the group. Wool growth was not increased significantly by repeated 60 mg implants at the lowest level of nutrition, nor by the single 60 mg implant in late spring. Increases of 34% in annual fleece weight resulted from 60 mg implants in autumn and summer. Repeated implantation of 30, 60, and 90 mg in groups on a medium or high plane of nutrition increased annual fleece weight by 8, 14, and 19%, and 7 mg injected weekly by 11%. Increases in fleece weight were due partly to increased fibre length, and partly to an increase in grease and suint which reduced the clean scoured yield by 1–2%. It is concluded that line-wool Merinos, despite their lower body weight and greater specialization for wool production, react to thyroxine treatment in the same way as has been established for "dual-purpose" sheep. The safe maximum dose rate is critically dependent on the current level of nutrition, particularly for young sheep. Repeated implantations without adequate opportunity for recovery of catabolized body tissues may produce no increase in wool growth and may cause death.

Effect of abomasal infusions of methionine, casein, and starch plus methionine on the wool production of Merino wethers fed on lucerne or wheaten chaff

1974 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 945 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Dove ◽  
GE Robards
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
Body Weight Gain ◽  
Nitrogen Retention ◽  
Basal Diet ◽  
Nitrogen Excretion ◽  
Wool Production ◽  
Wool Growth ◽  
Quality Diet ◽  
Urinary Nitrogen Excretion ◽  
Urinary Nitrogen

Merino wethers received daily abomasal infusions of (a) 2.6 g DL-methionine, (b) 80 g casein protein or (c) 2.6 g DL-methionine plus 87 g maize starch, while consuming either lucerne chaff or wheaten chaff. Responses in wool growth, nitrogen metabolism and body weight were measured. Sheep fed on lucerne chaff had a higher urinary nitrogen excretion and nitrogen retention than those fed on wheaten chaff regardless of the presence or type of infusion. The infusion of methionine did not markedly alter these parameters from their original levels on either diet. On both diets, casein infusion led to increased urinary nitrogen excretion and nitrogen retention. Compared with sheep given starch plus methionine infusions, those given casein had higher urinary nitrogen excretion and nitrogen retention. Changes in fleece-free body weight gain followed a similar pattern. There were no pronounced differences in faecal nitrogen excretion. Regardless of the presence or type of infusion, sheep fed on lucerne grew more wool than those on wheaten chaff. On both diets, all infusions were accompanied by higher wool growths than on the basal diet alone. The effect of the casein infusion, compared with methionine infusion, was apparent only in sheep on wheaten chaff. Wool growth rates in sheep infused with starch plus methionine were not higher than the rates in the same sheep infused with methionine alone. The results suggest that the wool production of sheep will show a greater response to abomasal supplements of sulphur amino acids or casein if they are consuming a high quality diet such as lucerne chaff, compared with a low quality diet such as wheaten chaff. The apparent failure of starch infusion to stimulate wool growth above the level obtained with methionine infusions alone is discussed in relation to the interaction of protein and energy in the growth of wool.

Effect of time of joining and rate of stocking on the production of Corriedale ewes in southern Victoria. 3. Wool growth and the composition and availability of pasture

1975 ◽  
Vol 15 (73) ◽  
pp. 159 ◽  
Author(s):  
PA Kenney ◽  
IF Davis
Keyword(s):  
Fibre Diameter ◽  
Late Pregnancy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Lactation ◽  
Stocking Rate ◽  
Wool Production ◽  
Wool Growth ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Brome Grass ◽  
Stocking Rates

A study was made during a three year period (1 968-1 970) of wool production by a flock of 540 ewes grazing annual pasture at Werribee, Victoria. The ewes were stocked at three rates (5, 7 1/2 and 10 ewes ha-1) and lambed between July 6 and August 20 or between September 10 and October 29 each year. Fibre diameter and length of wool samples were measured in 1968, 1969 and 1970 ; in 1970 growth of greasy wool was calculated from staples of dye-banded wool. Wool growth was reduced in all ewes during late pregnancy and early lactation but was not affected during late lactation in ewes lambing in September. The proportion of tender fleeces from all ewes was greater in 1970 and the weight of fleeces from only those ewes bearing single lambs was less in all years for ewes lambing in July than for ewes lambing in September. More ewes were barren and fewer ewes had twins in July and consequently the mean fleece weights of all ewes from both groups were similar. Fleeces from ewes stocked at 10 ha-1 were lighter, shorter and finer than fleeces from ewes stocked at 5 and 7 1/2 ha-1, but the proportion of tender fleeces did not differ between the groups. Wool production of ewes stocked at 5 and 7 1/2 ha-1 increased from 1968 to 1970, whereas that of ewes at 10 ha-1 did not. This was associated with differences in pasture availability and composition. At 10 ewes ha-1 less pasture was present in winter and spring in 1970 than in 1968, whereas at the other stocking rates it was greater. In 1970 the density of weeds in autumn was greater and in spring more silver grass (Vulpia spp.) and less brome grass (Bromus spp.) was available at the high stocking rate.

Wool production of grazing sheep supplemented with casein and formaldehyde-treated casein

1971 ◽  
Vol 11 (48) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
JP Langlands
Keyword(s):  
Sodium Caseinate ◽  
Supplementary Feeding ◽  
Stocking Rate ◽  
Wool Production ◽  
Herbage Intake ◽  
Grazing Sheep

For 59 days grazing Merino wethers were given 0, 40, or 80 g of sodium caseinate each day directly into the abomasum. Clean wool production was increased by 35 and 38 per cent after giving 40 and 80 g per day respectively. In a second experiment grazing Merino wethers were given 0 or 80 g casein, or 40 or 80 g casein treated with formaldehyde (HCHO-casein) each day through cannulae inserted into the rumen. Wool production was increased by 22, 38, and 51 per cent by the 80 g casein, 40 g HCHO-casein and 80 g HCHO-casein treatments respectively. In a third experiment Merino wethers, in which rumen cannulae had been prepared, were grazed at a high and low stocking rate, and were given daily 0, 20, 40, or 60 g HCHO-casein through the rumen cannulae. Wool production and efficiency of wool production increased, and herbage intake declined as the level of supplementary feeding increased.

Provision of high nitrogen roughage to sheep as a supplement to low nitrogen roughage

1975 ◽  
Vol 15 (74) ◽  
pp. 342 ◽  
Author(s):  
GE Robards ◽  
GR Pearce
Keyword(s):  
Poor Response ◽  
Control Group ◽  
In Vitro Digestibility ◽  
High Nitrogen ◽  
Wool Production ◽  
Wool Growth ◽  
Ad Libitum ◽  
Low Nitrogen ◽  
Basal Ration

Three feeding experiments and a digestibility study are reported in which the effects of supplementing low nitrogen roughages with roughages of high nitrogen content were studied. In each feeding experiment the effect of varying the frequency of supplementation was examined. During the first experiment intake of lucerne hay was greater (P < 0.05) than the intake of oaten hay and higher wool growth rates and liveweight changes were recorded. When the oaten and lucerne hays were alternated at intervals of one, two, three or four days, the average intake and rate of liveweight change was intermediate between the two previous levels, but the rate of wool production was similar to when lucerne hay was offered alone. There were no differences in total intake, clean wool production or liveweight change due to the frequency with which the two rations were alternated. The second experiment involved the feeding of a fixed quantity of lucerne hay with a. five times as much oaten hay or b. ad libitum oaten hay. The lucerne hay was given daily and every second, fourth and eighth days, and there was an unsupplemented control group. During the restricted feeding period frequent supplementation resulted in higher liveweight gain but there was no effect on wool growth. When oaten hay was provided ad libitum the poor response to supplementation and the large variation in intake within groups resulted in no significant differences in wool production or liveweight change between groups. The results of the third experiment indicate that the digestibility or degree of lignification of the basal ration affects the likelihood of a response to supplementation. It was shown that frequent supplementation of pasture hay resulted in higher intake, liveweight and wool production. On the other hand, substitute feeding with little change in animal production occurred when lucerne hay was offered to similar sheep consuming a basal ration of oaten hay which had a higher level of fibre and a lower in vitro digestibility than the pasture hay.

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