Ewe body condition: Does farmer practice meet research guidelines?

摘要

A group of sheep farmers in the Southland region of New Zealand were surveyed in the winter of 2011 to determine their current winter management practices and ewe performance. This followed a 3 year Sustainable Farming Fund project to investigate if there was a relationship between maintaining an even ewe body condition score (BCS) during pregnancy and the incidence of vaginal prolapse (bearings). The program included a series of workshops to help farmers improve their ewe winter management and it became apparent that the actual winter feeding practice and ewe performance was relatively unknown.The research was done to document current farmer winter feeding and management practices and subsequent whole flock reproductive performance.