LAMB-FATTENING TRIALS

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26261, 4 November 1950, Page 5

LAMB-FATTENING TRIALS

DEPARTMENT’S RESULTS Lamb-fattening trials on various crops were carried out by the Department of Agriculture at Kirwee over a period of eight years, says a recent issue of the department’s agriculture newsletter. The trials were designed to record the effects of different management practices on the growth of lambs and on lamb mortality. The experiments included an examination of the value of drenching with phenothiazine, the provision of a run-off to [pasture, and the use of supplements of hay, grain, minerals and vitamins, and a comparison of set stocking with grazing in weekly breaks. During this period the serious mortality that the [experiments were designed to study did not occur, but the effects on [growth rate enabled certain recomimendations to be made about lamb fattening on crops. [ Rape, sweet blue lupins, chou moellier, and thousand-beaded kale were all shown to be good feeds and of [about equal value. '

| In a year when repeated rains do [not fall during November and Decem- | ber, so that the countryside shows i signs of drying up, the simplest method of all—set stocking without run-off, drenching, or supplements—gives the best results. On the other hand, if November and December are I wet and the grass still green in January, lambs should be drenched with phenothiazine before going on to the crop and again three weeks later. If the crop will give more than four weeks’ continuous feeding, a system of weekly break grazing combined with 1 drenching with phenothiazine may be advisable. The provision of a run-off or a supplement of hay depresses the rate of gain, and the department recommends that such methods be used only where a farmer wishes to carry more lambs an acre of feed and is prepared to do this at the cost of a reduction in rate of fattening.