The Impacts of Waterproof Insulated Jackets on Lamb Performance on a UK Lowland Farm

摘要

Cold stress is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in lambs, with negative implications on both lamb welfare and economics. A recent anecdotal trend has been the provision of insulating jackets to young stock on cattle farms, despite a lack of evidence for their effectiveness in the literature. This study aimed to document the use of similar insulating jackets in lambs to determine if they could reduce the effect of cold stress on lamb growth. Insulating lamb jackets were assessed on their effect on physiological parameters such as temperature and weight gain to determine if they provided an advantage to lamb production. This study found that the jackets had no significant effect on lamb average weight gain, live weight or estimated body temperature. However, jacketed lambs had significantly higher surface temperatures throughout the study.