|
|
Article: Artificial Lighting During Winter Increases Milk Yield in Dairy Ewes
- Article from:
- Journal of Dairy Science
- Article date:
- November 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright American Dairy Science Association Nov 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
ABSTRACT
In Australia, the supply of sheep milk is reduced during the winter. Housing dairy animals under lights during winter is a simple technique to increase milk yield; however, it is difficult to predict the magnitude of this increase in dairy ewes, because there are few corroborating data. We studied 220 East Friesian crossbred ewes (50 primiparous and 170 multiparous ewes, respectively) that lambed in April to May 2007 (late autumn, southern hemisphere) and were weaned from their lambs within 24 h of parturition and milked exclusively by machine. These ewes were ranked according to their milk production, and ewes producing ≥1,000 mL/d of milk were allocated to 1 of 2 groups. ...