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Choice a taste tempter
12 Aug 2004
Animal nutritionist Karen Venning tries to find out what ewes and lambs like to eat. Working for Victoria's Department of Primary Industries at Hamilton, she said it's one thing to lock up sheep in a pasture full of ryegrass - but is that what they really prefer to eat?
Surveying sheep eating preferences is part of the MoreLamb Quality Pastures research trials in south-west Victoria. The ewes' and lambs' preferences are spelled out in their grazing habits and their weight gains.
The flocks were provided with four pasture diets, then observed. The pastures included ryegrass and sub-clover mixture, pure ryegrass, pure sub-clover, and a paddock which was half sown to ryegrass and the other half to clover.
The clover was the pasture of choice. Where the flock had a choice between clover and ryegrass pastures, the sheep preferred a diet of about 70 per cent clover and 30 per cent grass. In south-west Victoria most pastures contain less than 20 per cent clover.
Lambs grazing heavily on clover had weight gains 20-30 per cent higher than those eating more traditional mixed pastures.
Ms Venning said the results suggested that offering sheep adjacent monocultures and allowing them to select their own diet might stimulate them to eat more and more nutritiously.
Weekly Times, 11/8/04, page 9.
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