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A comparison of the performance of suckled lambs with lambs weaned at seven weeks of age and either grazed or given concentrates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

W. Rutter
W. Rutter
Affiliation:
North of Scotland College of Agriculture, Aberdeen
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Summary

1. Seventy-two Blackface ewes with 96 Greyface (Border Leicester ♂ × Blackface ♀) lambs were allocated to three groups. Twenty-four ewes with 32 suckling lambs were set-stocked on 2·4 hectares (ha) of grass (A); 32 lambs were weaned and set-stocked on 2·4 ha of grass (B) and 32 lambs were weaned, housed and given concentrates (C). Beef cows with calves were used to control the grass in the two grazing groups.

2. The average initial live weight of the lambs was 18 kg. Treatments had a significant effect on performance, the live-weight gains per lamb over the initial 35 days being 11·2, 9·1 and 5·9 kg for groups A, B and C respectively. The total gains over 70 days, when the suckled lambs (A) were weaned, were 17·6, 15·5 and 14·3 kg.

3. The total live-weight gain per ha from lambs and calves over 88 days was higher on treatment B than on treatment A. The lambs weaned on to grass took 9 days longer than the suckled lambs to reach a slaughter weight of 42 kg and had significantly poorer killing-out percentages.

4.The lambs given concentrates had an overall food conversion efficiency of 4·89 kg concentrates per kg live-weight gain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , November 1970 , pp. 543 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1970

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References

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