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Relationships between energy intake, nutritional state and lamb birth weight in Greyface ewes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

A. J. F. Russel ,
T. J. Maxwell ,
A. R. Sibbald  and
D. McDonald
A. J. F. Russel
Affiliation:
Hill Farming Research Organisation, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0PY
T. J. Maxwell
Affiliation:
Hill Farming Research Organisation, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0PY
A. R. Sibbald
Affiliation:
Hill Farming Research Organisation, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0PY
D. McDonald
Affiliation:
Hill Farming Research Organisation, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0PY
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Summary

Individual feed intakes of housed mature Greyface (Border Leicester × Scottish Blackface) ewes were adjusted weekly to maintain plasma 3-hydroxybutyrate concentrations during the final 6 weeks of pregnancy at the following values: treatment 1 (adequately nourished; 17 ewes) less than 0·7 mmol/1; treatment 2 (moderately undernourished; 15 ewes) at about 1·1 mmol/1; treatment 3 (severely undernourished; 15 ewes) at about 1·6 mmol/1.

The mean energy intakes (MJ metabolizable energy (ME)/day) required to maintain the prescribed nutritional states in single- and twin-bearing ewes were: treatment 1, 14·3 and 16·3; treatment 2, 10·6 and 11·6; treatment 3, 8·1 and 10·0 respectively.

The moderate degree of undernourishment had no significant effect on the birth weight of single lambs, but reduced the birth weight of twins by 8·2%, while the more severe undernourishment reduced the birth weights of singles and twins by 21·5 and 25·8% respectively.

Foetal energy requirements, estimated by regression analysis, appeared to decrease from more than 2 MJ ME/kg/24 h at 35 days prepartum to 1·54 MJ ME/kg/24 h in the week before parturition.

The amounts of energy required to sustain the nutritional states of treatments 1–3 in non-pregnant ewes were calculated to be 348, 271 and 231 kJ ME/kg0.75/24 h, compared with a maintenance requirement, determined in this experiment, of 344 kJ ME/kg0.75/24h.

It is concluded that in individually fed ewes a nutritional state characterized by plasma 3-hydroxybutyrate concentrations of 1·1 mmol/1 would constitute an acceptable compromise between an uneconomically high energy input and an excessive reduction in lamb birth weight.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 89 , Issue 3 , December 1977 , pp. 667 - 673
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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