Grazing forage crops can add value and weight to lambs at low cost and improve efficiency of production by releasing grazing for ewes when lambs are marketed earlier.
Stubble turnips provide a consistent diet that delivers a high level of, and consistency in, lamb eating quality through the winter months.
Both narrow-leaf and yellow lupins could be used as a home-grown alternative to imported soya, or a bought-in commercial concentrate containing rapeseed meal and palm kernel, for finishing lambs in the UK without any adverse effects on lamb productivity or carcass killing-out percentages.
Maize silage can replace grass silage in pregnant ewe diets with no adverse effects on lamb output.
Where stocking rates are adequate, larger and more productive crossbred ewes can be maintained in the hill environment without deleterious consequences for survival or pregnancy rate.
Selenium supplementation of ewes throughout pregnancy, compared with supplementation only in late pregnancy, improved meat appearance by maintaining the redness of the muscle.
Daily liveweight gains of between 0.7kg and 0.85kg, to ensure that heifers calve at two years old, can be achieved with out-wintering systems based on stubble turnips and haylage on a low-cost system
A restricted low energy pre-calving diet significantly reduces body reserve mobilisation post calving and results in a more rapid return to positive energy status.
An increased average daily gain during the first six months of life significantly reduces the age at first calving in dairy heifers.
Take Home Message: Norwegian Red cattle can significantly improve the fertility of UK dairy herds.
Reproductive performance of Norwegian Red dairy cows was significantly better than Holstein Friesian cows when managed under typical commercial farm conditions in Northern Ireland.
That was the conclusion of a study, co-funded by DARDNI and AgriSearch and carried out by scientists at [...]
