New ewe production guidelines
New production guidelines for composite and crossbred ewes has found lamb production maternals benefit from greater condition scores, according to Ag Vic research.
A NEW set of guidelines for crossbred and composite ewes will be released following extensive research by Agriculture Victoria.
Research found that in general, composite ewes perform better at higher condition scores during critical management periods such as lambing and weaning.
Agriculture Victoria senior research scientist Ralph Behrendt said the original Lifetime Ewe management course provided guidelines that were directed mostly at Merino and wool production.
“This new work was done exclusively with maternal composite and crossbred ewes to look at optimising those guidelines for prime lamb production,” Dr Behrendt said.
“They’re different types of animals with different energy requirements and different propensities to grow meat and muscle with higher reproductive rates so it’s important that we finetune those guidelines.”
Dr Behrendt said the new ewe management guidelines had the potential to create profit gains of $7 to $11 per ewe.
“There are gains to be made in reproductive rates, improvements in lamb survival rates and earlier weaning because of increased lamb weight gain,” Dr Behrendt said.
“You also see a reduction in costs for supplementary feeding during pregnancy.”
Dr Behrendt said research found higher condition scores were optimal in composite and crossbred ewes — a traditionally heavier animal — but producers would not need to alter their production systems greatly to achieve targets.
Research also found maternal composite ewes eat more at feed on offer levels between 700kg and 1500kg DM/ha than predicted using current feeding standards.
The new guidelines can be found on the Agriculture Victoria website.
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