Does early pregnancy nutrition affect the performance of triplet-bearing ewes and their progeny to weaning?

Figures & data

Table 1  Effect of ewe nutritional treatment from P21 to P50 on pre- and post-herbage grazing mass (kg DM/ha) and metabolisable energy (ME) (MJ/kg) (means±SE). Means (± SE) within columns with letters in common or without superscripts are not significantly different (P > 0.05).

	Herbage mass (kg DM/ha)
	Pre-grazing	Post-grazing	ME (MJ/kg)
Sub-maintenance (SM)	996^a±89	814^a±54	12.35±0.26
Maintenance (M)	1479^b±107	1112^b±59	12.67±0.26
Ad lib (AD)	2331^c±82	1649^c±54	12.14±0.23

Table 2  Effect of ewe nutritional treatment from P21 to P50 on ewe condition score (ECS) at P21, P50, P137 and L92 (P, pregnancy; L, lactation) (means±SE). Means (± SE) within columns with letters in common or without superscripts are not significantly different (P > 0.05).

		ECS				ECS
	n	P21	P50	P137	n	L92
SM	33	3.0±0.1	2.3^a±0.1	2.9±0.1	30	3.1±0.1
M	27	2.9±0.1	2.9^b±0.1	3.0±0.1	24	3.0±0.1
AD	26	2.9±0.1	3.2^b±0.1	3.0±0.1	23	3.0±0.1

Table 3  Effect of ewe nutritional treatment from P21 to P50 on ewe liveweight (kg) in pregnancy (P) and lactation (L) (means±SE). Means (± SE) within columns with letters in common or without superscripts are not significantly different (P > 0.05).

		Ewe liveweight (kg)						Ewe liveweight (kg)
	n	P21	P30	P50	P90	P137	n	L92
SM	33	69.1±1.4	66.3±1.1	64.5^a±1.0	69.1±1.1	86.9±1.3	30	75.5±1.6
M	27	67.6±1.3	68.2±1.2	66.9^a±1.2	71.0±1.3	87.7±1.5	24	72.0±1.8
AD	26	68.1±1.3	68.9±1.2	69.5^b±0.5	72.5±1.3	87.3±1.5	23	72.3±2.0

Table 4  The effect of ewe rearing rank (single-, twin-, triplet-rearing) and nutritional treatment from P21 to P50 and on lamb liveweight (LL) (kg) at birth, L23, L50 and L92 (means±SE). Means (± SE) within nutritional treatments, birth/rearing ranks and columns with letters in common or without superscripts are not significantly different (P > 0.05).

	n	LL at birth (kg)	n	LL at L23 (kg)	n	LL at L50 (kg)	n	LL at L92 (kg)
Rearing rank^1
Singleton	—	—	11	11.16^b±0.56	16	16.85^b±0.64	21	28.04^b±0.97
Twin	—	—	74	10.03^b±0.30	80	15.50^ab±0.36	72	26.08^ab±0.63
Triplet	—	—	96	9.28^a±0.29	60	14.50^a± 0.41	60	24.16^a±0.71
P21-50
SM	99	4.22±0.09	69	9.26^a±0.38	59	15.30±0.47	56	25.49±0.62
M	81	4.33±0.10	54	10.95^b±0.38	48	16.01±0.45	51	26.52±0.73
AD	78	4.27±0.11	58	10.53^ab 0.21	49	15.54±0.47	46	26.29±0.83
RR * P21–50^2
Singleton * SM	—	—	4	8.56^ab±0.93	—	—	—	—
Singleton * M	—	—	4	12.89^b±0.98	—	—	—	—
Singleton *AD	—	—	3	12.03^ab±1.12	—	—	—	—
Twin * SM	—	—	26	10.59^b±0.43	—	—	—	—
Twin * M	—	—	26	10.32^b±0.42	—	—	—	—
Twin *AD	—	—	22	10.00^ab±0.44	—	—	—	—
Triplet * SM	—	—	39	8.64^a±0.38	—	—	—	—
Triplet * M	—	—	24	9.43^ab±0.46	—	—	—	—
Triplet *AD	—	—	33	9.55^ab±0.41	—	—	—	—
^1Number of lambs still alive within litter.
^2Rearing rank by nutrition treatment interaction.