The nutrition, liveweight (LW) and body condition score (CS) of breeding ewes varies considerably throughout the year due to fluctuations in the quantity and quality of available feed. Extreme nutrition of ewes during pregnancy affects wool production(Kelly et al. 1996) and possibly other traits (Cronje 2003) during the life of their progeny. This paper reports the effects on ewe LW and CS of a range of nutritional treatments imposed as part of the Lifetime Wool project (Thompson and Oldham 2004). A wide range of LW and CS profiles during pregnancy and lactation was a prerequisite for determining the response curves for both maternal and progeny characteristics that contribute to farm profit.
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