Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-fvjsw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T02:19:34.425Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lamb mortality in Scottish hill flocks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

R. G. Gunn and
J. F. Robinson
R. G. Gunn
Affiliation:
Hill Farming Research Organisation, Edinburgh 12
J. F. Robinson
Affiliation:
Hill Farming Research Organisation, Edinburgh 12
Get access

Summary

1. Records on lamb mortality from birth to marking at approximately 6 weeks are summarised for four seasons in one Cheviot and three Scottish Blackface flocks and discussed in relation to the breed, environmental and management differences existing on the three farms of Sourhope, Roxburghshire; Lephinmore, Argyllshire and Glensaugh, Kincardineshire.

2. The mortality rates in single-born lambs from three-year-old and older ewes, following hill lambings, were 12% and 6% respectively in the Cheviot and Blackface flocks at Sourhope and 14% in the Blackface flock at Lephinmore. In the Blackface flock at Glensaugh, the mortality rate following regular pre-lambing feeding and lambing on cultivated pastures was 5%.

3. There was considerably heavier mortality in twin-born lambs, and in single-born lambs from two-year-old ewes, notably as a result of increased loss subsequent to birth.

4. Among single-born lambs, more males were lost than females, the difference being between 1% and 8% according to the farm and being largely due to a greater frequency of difficult births among males.

5. Lambs with birth weights markedly heavier or lighter than average had a higher percentage of mortality.

6. An abnormal incidence of loss from difficult birth in a Cheviot sub-flock in 1957 is described.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , February 1963, pp. 67 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1963

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Gordon, I., 1958. The use of progesterone and serum gonadotrophin (P.M.S.) in the control of fertility in sheep. J. agric. Sci., 50 123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammond, J., 1952. Farm Animals. Their Breeding, Growth and Inheritance. Edward Arnold & Co., London.Google Scholar
Hill Farming Research Organisation, 1958. First report 1954-58. Hill Farming Research Organisation, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Ministry of Health, 1949. Neonatal mortality and morbidity. Rep. publ. Hlth. med. Subj., No. 94, H.M.S.O., London.Google Scholar
Palsson, H., 1939. Meat qualities in sheep with special reference to the Scottish breeds and crosses. J. agric. Sci., 29: 544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papadopoulos, J. C. & Robinson, T. J., 1957. Fat lamb studies in Victoria. II. The interaction between pre- and post-natal planes of nutrition on the production of wool and lambs by crossbred sheep. Aust. J. agric. Res., 8: 471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Purser, A. F. & Young, G. B., 1959. Lamb survival in two hill flocks. Anim. Prod., 1: 85.Google Scholar
Thomson, A. M. & Thomson, W., 1949. Lambing in relation to the diet of the pregnant ewe. Brit. J. Nutr., 2: 290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, S. M., 1955. Fertility in Clun Forest sheep. J. agric. Sci., 45: 202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar