The estimation of the milk yield of a ewe from body weight data on the suckling lamb

Abstract

SUMMARYMilk yield data obtained by the lamb-suckling technique on twenty-four ewes over a period of 5 consecutive days in the second and third week of their lactation have been related to lamb body weights and lamb body-weight changes over the same period. The regression equation obtained wasThe equation was used to estimate the milk consumption of lambs over the range of lamb body weights and lamb body-weight changes studied. The standard errors of these estimates have been computed for comparison with those obtained directly from the lamb suckling technique.The role of the prediction equation in estimating daily milk consumption of lambs is discussed.