The effect of dietary crude protein concentration and time of weaning on milk production and body-weight change in the ewe

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Abstract
SUMMARY Twenty-seven North Country Cheviot ewes, each carrying twin foetuses and having a mean body weight at 6 weeks prior to parturition of 81 kg were individually penned and offered a constant daily intake of 16·75 MJ metabolizable energy during the last 6 weeks of gestation. At parturition the ewes were allocated to one of three dried grass/concentrate diets containing (1) 10·3, (2) 13·6 or (3) 16·9 % crude protein (CP) and 10 MJ metabolizable energy (ME) per kg. The mean daily CP intakes for diets 1 to 3 were 273, 340 and 415 g respectively and the mean daily ME intake was 25 MJ. Within each level of dietary CP intake the lambs were weaned at either 25, 35 or 41 days of age. There were no significant diet × stage of weaning interactions in milk yield or ewe body-weight change during lactation. The mean daily levels of milk production were 2·4, 2·9 and 3·1 kg for diets 1 to 3 respectively. The corresponding values for ewe body-weight loss were 118, 170 and 265 g per day. When the diet contained 13·8% CP the incremental increase in milk production per unit increase in protein intake was 4·2 g/g. This gave an incremental increase in lamb growth rate of 0·79 g/g and was equivalent to the associated incremental increase in ewe body-weight loss. A reduction in the concentration of CP in the ewes' diet when the lambs are 3 weeks of age may be a useful practical procedure for decreasing milk production and for reducing the body-weight loss of the ewe in a frequent breeding system.