Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T14:43:49.630Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Influence of shearing regime and grass silage quality on the performance of pregnant ewes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

Heather J. Black  and
D. M. B. Chestnut
Heather J. Black
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down BT26 6DR
D. M. B. Chestnut
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down BT26 6DR
Get access

Abstract

The performance of housed ewes, shorn at various stages during pregnancy and offered silages ad libitum made from grass harvested at two contrasting stages of growth, was studied. The mean increase in silage dry matter (DM) intake due to shearing (0·11 kg/day; P > 0·05) was small in comparison with that resulting from offered earlier-cut silage (0·27 kg/day; P < 0·001). The mean increase in twin lamb birth weight from ewes shorn at least 6 weeks before lambing was almost 1 kg per lamb (P < 0·01) with no significant effect on ewe live-weight change. Greatest increase in lamb birth weight (1·11 kg; P < 0·01) was produced by shearing several times during pregnancy, with least response (0·23 kg; P < 0·05) from shearing once only, 4 weeks before lambing. The effect of silage quality on lamb birth weight was not significant, despite the large difference in DM intake of the two silages. This difference in intake was reflected by ewe live-weight change over pregnancy with those ewes offered early-cut silage gaining 5·57 kg while those offered late-cut silage lost 4·53 kg (P < 0·001). There was a marked fall in respiration rate and rectal temperature after each shearing and, compared with shorn ewes, unshorn ewes had a mean gestation length which was 2·04 days shorter (P < 0·01). In terms of lamb growth rates, ewe milk yields and milk composition, the performance on all treatments after turn-out to pasture was satisfactory and no significant carry-over effect of treatments applied during pregnancy were observed during the first 5 weeks of lactation.

Keywords

birth weighteweslactationpregnancyshearing
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , December 1990 , pp. 573 - 582
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adalsteinsson, S. 1972. Experiments on winter shearing of sheep in Iceland. Ada Agriculturae Scandinavica 22: 93–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adu, I. F. and Olaloku, E. A. 1979. A note on the nutrition during late pregnancy in West African Dwarf sheep. Animal Production 28: 123–126.Google Scholar
Alexander, G., and Williams, D. 1971. Heat stress and the development of the conceptus in domestic sheep. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 76: 53–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austin, A. R. and Young, N. F. 1977. The effect of shearing pregnant ewes on lamb birth weights. Veterinary Record 100: 527–529.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blaxter, K. L., Graham, N. Mcc. and Wainman, F. W. 1959. Environmental temperature, energy metabolism and heat regulation in sheep. III. The metabolism and thermal exchanges of sheep with fleeces. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 52: 41–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes, J. M. 1967. Factors affecting the gestation length in sheep. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 68: 191–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes, J. M. 1968. The physical relationships of the abdominal organs in the pregnant ewe. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 70: 171–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glanville, J. R. D. and Phillips, C. J. C. 1986. The effect of winter shearing Welsh Mountain ewes in the hill environment. Animal Production 42: 455 (Abstr.).Google Scholar
Joubert, D. M. 1956. A study of pre-natal growth and development in the sheep. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 47: 382–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirk, J. A., Cooper, R. A. and Chapman, A. 1984. Effect of shearing housed pregnant ewes on their plasma glucose levels, lamb birth weight and lamb growth rate to 56 days. Animal Production 38: 524 (Abstr.).Google Scholar
Kneale, W. A. and Bastiman, B. 1977. Inwintering of ewes. v. The effect of shearing at housing. Experimental Husbandry 32: 70–74.Google Scholar
McCance, I. 1959. The determination of milk yield in the Merino ewe. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 10: 839–853.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maund, B. A. 1980. Shearing ewes at housing. Animal Production 30: 481 (Abstr.).Google Scholar
Mellor, D. J., Slater, J. S. and Matheson, I. C. 1975. Effect of changes in ambient temperature on maternal plasma and allantoic fluid from chronically catheterised ewes during the last two months of pregnancy. Research in Veterinary Science 18: 219–221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Minson, D. J. and Ternouth, J. H. 1971. The expected and observed changes in the intake of three hays by sheep after shearing. British Journal of Nutrition 26: 31–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nedkvitne, J. J. 1972. Effect of shearing before and after lambing. Ada Agriculturae Scandinavica 22: 97–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russel, A. J. F., Armstrong, R. H. and White, I. R. 1985. Studies on the shearing of housed pregnant ewes. Animal Production 40: 47–53.Google Scholar
Russel, A. J. F., Doney, J. M. and Gunn, R. G. 1969. Subjective assessment of body fat in live sheep. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 72: 451–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russel, A. J. F., Maxwell, T. J., Sibbald, A. R. and McDonald, D. 1977. Relationships between energy intake, nutritional state and lamb birth weight in Greyface ewes. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 89: 667–673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, W., Laird, T. R. and Broadbent, P. J. 1971. The effects of clipping pregnant ewes at housing and of feeding different basal roughages. Animal Production 13: 329–336.Google Scholar
Rutter, W., Laird, T. R. and Broadbent, P. J. 1972. A note on the effects of clipping pregnant ewes at housing. Animal Production 14: 127–130.Google Scholar
Shelton, M. and Huston, J. E. 1968. Effects of high temperature stress during gestation on certain aspects of reproduction in the ewe. Journal of Animal Science 27: 153–158.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sykes, A. R. and Slee, J. 1969. Cold exposure of Southdown and Welsh Mountain sheep. I. Effects of breed, plane of nutrition and acclimatization to cold upon resistance to body cooling. Animal Production 11: 65–75.Google Scholar
Symonds, M. E., Bryant, M. J. and Lomax, M. A. 1986. The effect of shearing on the energy metabolism of the pregnant ewe. British Journal of Nutrition 56: 635–643.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vipond, J. E., Kino, M. E., Inglis, D. M. and Hunter, E. A. 1987. The effect of winter shearing of housed pregnant ewes on food intake and animal performance. Animal Production 45: 211–221.Google Scholar
Wheeler, J. L., Reardon, T. F. and Lambourne, L. J. 1983. The effect of pasture availability and shearing stress on herbage intake in grazing sheep. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 14: 364–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, S. C. and Chestnutt, D. M. B. 1988. Effect of level of food intake in mid and late pregnancy on the performance of breeing ewes. Animal Production 47: 411–419.Google Scholar
Wodzicka-Tomaszewska, M. 1958. Studies of the thickness and chemical composition of the skin in sheep. III. Effect of shearing. New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research 1: 601–606.Google Scholar
Wodzicka-Tomaszewska, M. 1964. The effect of shearing on the appetite of two-tooth ewes. New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research 7: 654–662.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeates, N. T. M. 1953. The effect of high air temperature on reproduction in the ewe. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 43: 199–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar