More Information
Does the ewe nutrition during pregnancy affect the behaviour of ewe lambs at 1 and 2 years of age?
Corner RA, Kenyon PR, Stafford KJ, West DM, Morris ST, Blair HT
Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 65, pp 29-32, Jan 2005
Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 65, pp 29-32, Jan 2005
Article class: Young Members Presentation
Subject Terms: Behaviour, Diet/rations/food, Nutrition/metabolism, Pregnancy, Reproduction, Reproduction - female, Twinning/parity
Animal Type: Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant, Sheep
Publisher: New Zealand Society of Animal ProductionAbstract
The effects of the dam’s nutrition during pregnancy on her lambs’ behaviour in the days after birth has been examined but the longer term effects on lamb behaviour and mothering ability are not known. The behaviour of twin and triplet ewes born to ewes offered herbage with an average sward height of 2 or 6 cm from day 64 to 132 of pregnancy was recorded at 1 year of age in an arena test and at 2 years of age post lambing. A significantly (P < 0.05) greater proportion of the progeny born to dams offered 6 cm sward heights bleated in a high pitch during a 5 minute arena test. However there were no differences in minimum, median and maximum distance of the ewe from the observer or on the frequency of low- and high-pitched bleats. In addition there was no difference in the behaviour of twin- and triplet-born ewes in the arena test. At 2 years of age twin-born ewes had a significantly greater maternal behaviour score than their triplet-born counterparts. Ewe nutrition during pregnancy did not affect the maternal behaviour score of their ewe lambs after lambing at 2 years of age. These results suggest that feeding levels during pregnancy are less important than the birth rank in terms of the intergenerational effects on behaviour.KEYWORDS: ewe nutrition; lamb; behaviour; twin; triplet.
The whole of the literary matter of the Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production is copyright New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Downloading this article signifies agreement with the terms and conditions of electronic access.