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Productivity and intensive sheep stocking over a five-year period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

C. R. W. Spedding
Affiliation:
The Grassland Research Institute, Hurley, Berkshire
J. E. Betts
Affiliation:
The Grassland Research Institute, Hurley, Berkshire
R. V. Large
Affiliation:
The Grassland Research Institute, Hurley, Berkshire
I. A. N. Wilson
Affiliation:
The Grassland Research Institute, Hurley, Berkshire
P. D. Penning
Affiliation:
The Grassland Research Institute, Hurley, Berkshire

Extract

During the last ten years or so, the management of sheep for intensive lamb production has been studied on a considerable scale, and a variety of grazing systems have been investigated (Dickson, 1959; Cooper, 1959; Spedding & Large, 1959; Boaz, 1959). It is still too soon to specify precisely the place that any of these systems should occupy in sheep-production processes, in relation to breed, lambing percentage, weight of lamb at slaughter, stocking rate, botanical composition of the pasture, size of ewe and level of her milk yield. Quite apart from these biological considerations, the full economic implications are by no means clear. What has emerged most clearly, however, is that much higher stocking rates can be tolerated than had generally been regarded as safe and that, at these stocking rates, productivity can be extremely high.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

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