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Effects of concentrate supplementation and herbage allowance on the performance of grazing suckling lambs
Author(s) -
PRACHE SOPHIE,
BECHET G.,
THERIEZ M.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
grass and forage science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.716
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1365-2494
pISSN - 0142-5242
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2494.1990.tb01967.x
Subject(s) - grazing , allowance (engineering) , zoology , domestic sheep reproduction , biology , factorial experiment , dry matter , agronomy , pasture , mathematics , mechanical engineering , statistics , engineering
An experiment was conducted to examine the effect of concentrate supplementation on the performance of suckling lambs while grazing at variable levels of herbage allowance. Twenty‐four ewes suckling twin lambs were allocated 55 d after lambing between four grazing treatments (two levels of herbage allowance × two levels of supplementation) in a 2×2 factorial design. The sward consisted of Tall Fescue and was grazed rotationally. Daily herbage organic matter (OM) allowances were 57.0 (H) and 38.5 (L) g OM kg LW −1 above 1·5 cm cutting height. Lambs were either supplemented (S) ad libitum with high‐moisture whole maize grain or unsupplemented (U). Supplement intake during the 60‐d grazing period was 16 kg DM and 17.5 kg DM respectively for LS and HS lambs. The effect of supplementation on lamb growth rate differed significantly between allowances: at the low allowance level, supplementation increased growth rate (287 g d −1 vs 226 g d −1 ), whereas it had no effect at the high level (277 g d −1 vs 276 g d −1 ). Growth rate of unsupplemented lambs was significantly reduced at the low level of allowance compared to the high level (226 g d −1 vs 276 g d −1 ). The effect of sward height on time spent grazing by unsupplemented lambs is described during the defoliation of a plot.