Single implants of 35 mg, 70 mg and 140 mg of testosterone propionate induced significant increases in wool growth rates and significantly depressed appetite of Corriedale wethers fed ad libitum in pens. Under field conditions, the fleece weight of Merino wethers was significantly increased following the implantation of 70 mg of testosterone propionate in April and October and in another group ...

Data were recorded for annual reproduction, wool traits and pre-joining live weight of between 992 (for staple strength) to approximately 1200 production records of Merino ewes over the period from 1997 to 2002. The resource population has been divergently selected from the same base since 1986, either for (H line) or against (L line) maternal multiple rearing ability. When expressed relative t...

Ten non pregnant, non lactating Corriedale ewes ate an average of 148 g fuzzy whole cotton seed per sheep per day and their mean weight fell from 40.3 to 32.2 kg over an eight week period. Two of the sheep died. A similar group of ewes, offered a mixture of 227 g of cottonseed and 227 g of wheat per sheep per day, usually ate all the ration. At the end of an 18 week period, there were no signif...

The efficacy of 4 treatments in maintaining adequate plasma and liver vitamin B lz (B,,) concentrations was compared in young sheep grazing a cobalt (Co)-deficient site in the south east of South Australia. The treatments were injections of Blz or an intraruminal glass pellet containing Co prior to weaning and at weaning intraruminal glass pellets or Co pellets. A liveweight and fleece weight r...

The reliability and feasibility of 10 animal-based measures of ewe welfare were examined for use in extensive sheep production systems. Measures were: Body condition score (BCS), rumen fill, fleece cleanliness, fleece condition, skin lesions, tail length, dag score, foot-wall integrity, hoof overgrowth and lameness, and all were examined on 100 Merino ewes (aged 2-4 years) during mid-pregnancy,...

Before acclimatization of Bowiea volubilis, in vitro propagated bulbs were cleaned and separated into four sizes (from 6 to 15 mm). We formed a total 10 groups with 30-30 individuals, distributing the evenly. Four types substrate (peat, perlite, coconut fiber, sand) their mixtures 50-50% used. Previously we examined three parameters: length, diameter weight bulbs; later successfully acclimatize...

The association of fleece characters with susceptibility to dermatophilosis was studied in two flocks located on the south coast of Western Australia. The characters examined were wax content, suint content, wax to suint ratio, suint pH, yield, fleece wettability, fibre diameter, coefficient of fibre diameter variation, suint direct extract, direct extract pH and electrical conductivity. The re...

In Britain sheep are normally kept out-of-doors in winter and on hill farms they may be exposed to very severe weather conditions. On some hill farms pregnant ewes weighing 100 lb at the beginning of winter may well weigh 80 lb just before they lamb if the intervening winter weather has been severe. Deaths of ewes and more particularly of newborn Iambs can be very many in bad winters (Robinson,...