Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T00:05:27.121Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Crossbred lamb production from cast-for-age Blackface ewes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2016

H. P. Donald*
Affiliation:
A.R.C. Animal Breeding Research Organisation, Edinburgh, 9
Get access

Extract

Many thousands of cast-for-age Blackface ewes in Scotland and England are transferred each year to lower ground after producing four or five lamb crops on their native hill farms. It is then customary to use on them rams of another breed, often the Border Leicester, with a view to the production of more profitable lambs than can be obtained from pure-breeding (Bywater, 1945). Such is the scale on which this procedure is practised that it becomes an important consideration in any breeding plan for hill sheep that the cast ewes should be adapted to this phase of their careers as well as to that which precedes it on the hills. The outcome of selection work with Blackface sheep consequently cannot be fully assessed until the cast ewes have reared crossbred lambs, and have been finally disposed of.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1958

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blackwell, R. L., & Henderson, C. R., 1955. Variation in fleece weight, weaning weight and birth weight of sheep under farm conditions. J. Anim. Sci., 14: 831.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogart, R., De Baca, R. C, Calvin, L. D., & Nelson, O. M., 1957. Factors affecting birth weights of crossbred lambs. J. Anim. Sci., 16: 130.Google Scholar
Bonsma, F. N., 1939. Factors influencing the growth and development of lambs with special reference to cross-breeding of Merino sheep for fat-lamb production in South Africa. Publ. Univ. Pretoria, Ser. I: Agric, No. 48.Google Scholar
Bywater, T. L., 1945. Crossbreeding of sheep. J. R. agric. Soc. Engl, 106: 166.Google Scholar
Coop, I. E., & Clark, V. R., 1952. A comparison of breeds of ram for fat-lamb production. N.Z. J. Sci. Tech., Agric, 34: 153.Google Scholar
Donald, H. P., & McLean, J. W., 1935. The growth-rate of lambs in Canterbury. N.Z. J. Sci. Tech., 17: 497.Google Scholar
Donald, H. P., & Purser, A. F., 1956. Competition in utero between twin lambs. J. agric. Sci., 48: 245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doney, J. M., 1955. Problems of hill sheep improvement. Proc. Brit. Soc. Anim. Prod., 1955: 3.Google Scholar
Hammond, J., 1932. Growth and the Development of Mutton Qualities in the Sheep. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Kean, G. R., & Henning, W. L., 1949. Birth weights and average daily gain in hothouse lamb production. J. Anim. Sci., 8: 362.Google Scholar
Mason, I. L., & Dassat, P., 1954. Milk, meat and wool production in the Langhe sheep of Italy. Z. Tierz. ZuchtBiol., 62: 197.Google Scholar
McLean, J. W., 1952. Progeny testing in sheep. Lincoln College (New Zealand) Tech. Publ. No. 8.Google Scholar
Owen, J. B., 1957. A study of the lactation and growth of hill sheep in their native environment and under lowland conditions. J. agric. Sci., 48: 387.Google Scholar
Phillips, R. W., & Dawson, W. M., 1940. Some factors affecting survival, growth, and selection of lambs. Circ. U.S. Dep. Agric, No. 538.Google Scholar
Rae, A. L., 1952. Crossbreeding of sheep. II. Anim. Breed. Abstr., 20: 287.Google Scholar
Robinson, J. F., 1953. Survey of Blackface Sheep with Special Reference to their Hardiness. H.M. Stationery Office, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Thomson, W., & McDonald, I., 1955. The relation of weaning weight to birth weight of lambs. Proc Brit. Soc. Anim. Prod., 1955: 38. Google Scholar
Walker, D. E., 1949. North Island fat lamb crosses. Proc N.Z. Soc. Anim. Prod., 9: 107. Google Scholar
Walker, D. E., & Mcmeekan, C. P., 1944. Canterbury lamb. N.Z. J. Sci. Tech., Agric, 26: 51, 99.Google Scholar