Animal Production Science Special Issue Volume 51 Number 9
Edited by:
A. N. Thompson
S. Hatcher
C. A. Anderson
109 pages
Publisher:
CSIRO PUBLISHING
The series of papers published in this Animal Production Science Special Issue report on the effects of liveweight profiles of ewes on their wool production and reproduction, the birthweight and survival of their lambs, their growth and survival after weaning and production and quality of the progeny’s wool during their lifetime. These production responses were confirmed at a paddock scale in a range of environments and a range of Merino genotypes across southern Australia. In addition, the production responses developed by the Lifetimewool project were used to determine the optimum liveweight profile for ewe flocks in different regions.
In the past, sheep producers have been low adopters of nutritional recommendations for ewes and this has been attributed to the low relative advantage of the innovations, poor targeting of messages to the audience, a focus on awareness-raising activities rather than adoption activities, poor ‘packaging’ of information and few effective tools to aid decision-making. The Lifetimewool project also established a process to support the development and adoption of practical and effective guidelines and to quantify their impact on the industry. This included the conversion of the management guidelines from the liveweight profile of ewes to a condition score profile to better match producers’ needs and skills, as well as the development of new tools and novel delivery approaches to support on-farm practice change. The guidelines developed by the Lifetimewool project were extended through a range of approaches that resulted in more than 3000 producers changing practice, which represents 12% of all sheep producers in southern Australia.
This special issue of the Journal will be of particular interest to research scientists, resource managers, agribusiness advisors, as well as farmers, and is essential reading for anyone interested in sheep nutrition, reproduction and management.
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