Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T14:09:19.000Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A note on seasonal and age changes in the calcium, phosphorus and magnesium content of the blood of Scottish Blackface ewes, as influenced by calcium and phosphorus supplementation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

R. G. Gunn
Affiliation:
Hill Farming Research Organisation, 29 Lauder Road, Edinburgh, 9

Extract

In the course of an experiment designed to study the effects of calcium and phosphorus supplementation on the performance of Scottish Blackface hill ewes, with particular reference to the premature loss of permanent incisor teeth (Gunn, 1969), blood samples were taken from 40 ewes on ten occasions per year over a 4-year period. These were drawn equally from a control and three treatment groups. The control group followed the existing pattern of ewe management on the farm in question by utilizing improved pastures in the spring and early summer, and the treatment groups were a calcium dosed group (12 g calcium carbonate) and a phosphorus dosed group (13 g monosodium phosphate), both of which received the same management, and an undosed group run permanently on the hill. Details of the management and feeding are given in a previous paper (Gunn, 1969). It is sufficient to say here that mineral dosing took place three times per week between mid-February and the end of May and no minerals except salt were added to the concentrated ration fed to all groups at the rate of 10 oz (283 g)/head/day from mid-February to early May. Lambing commenced at about the end of the first week in April.

Type
Short Note
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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

Gunn, R. G. (1969). The effects of calcium and phosphorus supplementation on the performance of Scottish Blackface hill ewes, with particular reference to the premature loss of permanent incisor teeth. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 72, 371–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemingway, R. G. & Ritchie, N. S. (1963). Hypomagnesaemia in sheep. Some inconsistencies. J. Sci. Fd Agric. 14, 162–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemingway, R. G., Ritchie, N. S., Rutherford, A. R. & Jolly, G. M. (1963). Effects of potassium fertilizers, age of ewe and small magnesium supplementation on blood magnesium and calcium levels of lactating ewes. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 60, 307–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar