The influence of nutritional level in early pregnancy of the ewe

Abstract

SummaryA series of three large-scale field trials, involving 3500 ewes over a 3-year-period, was conducted to study the effect of restricted nutrition of breeding ewes in early pregnancy. Control or non-restricted ewes were fed at approximately maintenance level and restricted ewes at approximately half-maintenance. The majority of ewes fell into two categories—those 2–3 weeks pregnant at the time restriction was commenced and those 5–7 weeks pregnant. Restriction was applied for from 5 to 8 weeks, live-weight differences of approximately 10 1b were achieved.Differences in performance in individual trials were invariably very small, and nonsignificant. The main effect of restricted nutrition over all trials was to decrease twinning by 0·5% and decrease the number of barren ewes by 0·8%. These differences are considered to be negligible. Only one statistically significant effect was observed within one of the trials—this was a depression in twinning in ewes 18–24 days pregnant at the time of applying the treatment, but this effect could not be confirmed in the other two trials. However, the fleece grown was affected by treatment—the fleece weight being depressed by approximately ½ lb, and grade reduced slightly.It is concluded that restricted nutrition at the level and time applied has no effect on reproductive performances of ewes and therefore the practice of restriction in early pregnancy to conserve feed for late pregnancy is a sound policy.