Hi Carol,
Thank you for the link, I'll enjoy reading it in the midst of this
typhoon. And thanks for the opportunity to yip about my favorite
subject! :o)
I collect data on my lambs, but I don't have enough data to be relevant
yet, and I don't have averages. But I'd say that 5.75 lb at birth for
my AB's may be a fair to low average. The smallest I've had is 5 pounds
(currently gaining at about .47 lb/day) and the largest was probably the
new guy, at 7 pounds 6 ounces. His twin brother was 7 pounds 5 ounces.
We are shooting for a minimum birth weight of 6 pounds here, other
factors being equal.
I'd say most of my results are just the opposite of the ADG's you posted
though, with lambs rarely falling below .4 lb/day up to weaning. .5 per
day is considered excellent. What happens after weaning though, is a
real crap shoot, as it seems there can be a real dead spot in gains
after 4 months. For gains to pick up from only .28 lb/day up to
weaning, then rocket up to .66 lb/day for lambs **at grass** to me would
be an absolute miracle. Are these feed lot figures, where animals are
fed for maximum gain?
The closest figure I can give you is one of my nicest young ewes. At
281 days, she weighed 75.5 pounds. Assuming she weighed 7 pounds at
birth, that makes a total of 68.5 pounds gained from birth, and an
average lifetime average daily gain of .25 pounds. Early on however,
her growth described the curve I have related above. So, your lamb
below weighed 59.697 pounds at 270 days, and mine weighed 75.5 pounds at
281 days. I am a bit confused. I am going to have to go read the
article.
As a side note, I am beginning to discover that birth weights and gains
are powerfully impacted by the mineral intake of the animals. We'll be
doing a weigh-in of all the sheep this month, so I can report more then,
but in the meantime, I would say that on a diet which includes a fairly
unconventional mineral supplementation program, this crop of lambs has
been the healthiest, best gaining, most robust bunch so far, and we've
gone to almost zero parasite infestation.
Regards,
Barb Lee
Blacklocust Farm
Registered American Blackbelly Sheep
http://www.blacklocustfarm.net
- Original Message -
From: Carol Elkins [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 10:53 AM
Subject: [blackbelly] Average daily gain in blackbelly sheep
Those of you wanting current information about blackbelly average
daily
gain (ADG) and other production parameters may be interested in a new
paper
entitled The production parameters of the Barbados Blackbelly and
crossbred sheep in a controlled semi-intensive system and published
at
http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd18/4/solo18055.htm . The article
does not
define what a crossbred sheep is, but I'm assuming it is a similarly
sized hair sheep.
Sheep in this study were located in Guyana, South America. It would be
interesting to see how closely the data correlate to Barbados
Blackbelly
and American Blackbelly sheep here in the U.S. If you collect this
data,
please let me know.
The study uses metric measurement. For your convenience,
1 kilogram (kg) = 1000 grams (g) = 2.2 pound (lb)
From the article's data, I've computed the following average daily
gain
(ADG) for male/female lambs:
average birth weight = 2.6175 kg = 5.75 lb
Wean weight at 90 days = 11.615 kg = 25.553 lb ADG = 0.28 lb/day
Weight at 180 days = 19.175 kg = 42.185 lb ADG = 0.47 lb/day
Weight at 270 days = 27.135 kg = 59.697 lb ADG = 0.66 lb/day
Carol
Carol Elkins
Critterhaven--Registered Barbados Blackbelly Hair Sheep
(no shear, no dock, no fuss)
Pueblo, Colorado
http://www.critterhaven.biz
T-shirts, mugs, caps, and more at the
Barbados Blackbelly Online Store
http://www.cafepress.com/blackbellysheep
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