A Cross-Sectional Study of Commercial Ewe Management Practices for Different Sheep Breeds across Southern Australia

Abstract

The management of ewes across southern Australia may vary with breed and can change over time and, as such, a greater understanding of producer management practices and the motivations that influence these practices is required. A cross-sectional study was performed by telephone interview with sheep producers managing Composite, Maternal, Merino or shedding ewe breeds mated in either spring, summer, or autumn. The surveyed producers were a unique subset of southern Australian producers. A large proportion of the surveyed producers followed current best practice guidelines for ewe mating and lambing nutritional management; however, some producers did not align with these targets. Further, some producers did not see the value in attaining the current recommendations. Pregnancy scanning was widely practiced, likely an artefact of the recruitment process; however, a few producers did not utilize this information for nutritional management at lambing time. Finally, most producers were active in their search for new information, seeking information regularly from a wide range of sources and reported making management changes within the last five years. Further work is required to understand why some producers are not adopting best practice where possible and to understand current barriers for adoption. Management guidelines for all sheep breeds are required to best manage sheep across southern Australia.

Reproductive Performance of Triplet-Bearing Ewes on Commercial Farms and Research Priorities Identified by Sheep Producers to Improve the Survival of Triplet-Bearing Ewes and Their Lambs

“…The average mob size at lambing from the benchmark surveys was reported to be 52 triplet-bearing ewes, but it was apparent that producers had very different opinions of the optimum mob sizes, which varied from 10–150 triplet-bearing ewes. Bates et al [ 29 ] recently reported that mob sizes at lambing varied from 30–200 for triplet-bearing ewes across a small sample of farms, mostly in NSW. Lockwood et al [ 7 ] reported survey data collected from sheep producers in southeastern Australia, which indicated the survival of single- and twin-born lambs increased by 1.4% and 3.5% when mob size at lambing was reduced by 100 ewes.…”

Cryopreservation and Transfer of Sheep Embryos Recovered at Different Stages of Development and Cryopreserved Using Different Techniques

“…Sheep and goat breeding are the most dynamic livestock industries in many countries of the world [17][18][19]. With many positive parameters of small ruminant breeding, there are biological limitations of intensifying reproduction in natural reproduction methods, such as the presence of sexual season, low fecundity, getting 1 lamb per year, etc.…”