Management of weaner sheep in western Victoria. 2. The effects of supplements of oat grain or pasture hay or the periodic grazing of a green fodder crop upon current and subsequent production

Abstract

During the summer and autumn of each of three years, Merino and Corriedale weaners grazing dry pastures were fed supplements of oat grain or early mown pasture hay, or allowed to graze a green fodder crop. The feeds were offered from the time pastures dried until about one month after effective rains in the autumn, when the sheep were then from nine to twelve months of age. Relative to unsupplemented animals these treatments were usually associated with increases in liveweight gain and in wool production. Of the systems tested, the feeding of early mown hay with a crude protein content of 17 to 19 per cent was found to be the most effective method of managing weaner sheep during their first summer-autumn. There was some evidence that residual advantages in wool production, due to treatment, occurred at the second shearing after treatments ceased. Differences in liveweight present at the end of the feeding period usually disappeared within twelve months.