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The estimation of the milk yield of a ewe from body weight data on the suckling lamb

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

J. J. Robinson
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, and The Queen's University of Belfast
W. H. Foster
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, and The Queen's University of Belfast
T. J. Forbes
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, and The Queen's University of Belfast

Summary

Milk yield data obtained by the lamb-suckling technique on twenty-four ewes over a period of 5 consecutive days in the second and third week of their lactation have been related to lamb body weights and lamb body-weight changes over the same period. The regression equation obtained was

The equation was used to estimate the milk consumption of lambs over the range of lamb body weights and lamb body-weight changes studied. The standard errors of these estimates have been computed for comparison with those obtained directly from the lamb suckling technique.

The role of the prediction equation in estimating daily milk consumption of lambs is discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

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