Sheep Unit

Harper Adams has a flock of 155 early lambing ewes. These are predominantly Suffolk x North of England Mules that are mated to Charollais rams. Throughout the summer the ewes are dry, and graze on the free-range poultry unit. The ewes are mated in August. They are housed in late October and fed on concentrates and good quality barley straw. The lambing period is in early January. Lambs are weaned at 6 to 8 weeks of age, and remain indoors where they are finished for slaughter on an ad libitum concentrate diet. Ewes are turned out to grass at the end of March.

Recent trial work has included the following:

• The use of alternative protein sources for pregnant and lactating ewes
• The effects of feeding propylene glycol to ewes in late pregnancy and early lactation
• A comparison of two protein sources in the diets of finishing lambs
• The effect of polyunsaturated fatty acid and vitamin E supplementation of ewes on ewe and lamb performance
• The effect of selenium and zinc supplementation on the performance of ewes and lambs.

The sheep unit is used to demonstrate principles of sheep production to the majority of first year students. The sheep are also used for teaching in other modules. As well as explaining the principles of health, welfare, nutrition and managment, some students also have the opportunity to carry out routine tasks such as condition scoring, foot trimming, dosing and selecting lambs for slaughter, as part of their classes. The physical and financial performance figures for the flock are used by students to become familiar with carrying out enterprise appraisals.

Around six BSc students per year will use the sheep flock to carry out their final year investigational project. Projects can be nutrition based (e.g. late pregnancy nutrition of the ewe, diets for finishing lambs) or health based (e.g. prevention of footrot). In some cases the results of this work have been presented at conferences or published as research papers in scientific journals. A number of PhD students have utilised the sheep flock for their research work, in particular with relation to nutrition of the ewe in late pregnancy and early lactation. The flock are also used to carry out commercial trials.

The sheep flock is used to demonstrate recent research findings at open days. The flock also plays host to farmer groups interested in sheep production systems.

Dairy sheep unit

The Harper Adams milking sheep flock is made up of 65 Friesland and British Milksheep ewes. Ewes are housed in late pregnancy and fed concentrates and hay. The ewes lamb at the end of April and are then milked twice a day for a period of 5 to 10 months, depending on the research demand. Ewes graze on grass paddocks during the summer. Lambs are reared artificially using milk replacer or whole milk.

Recent trial work has included the following:

• The use of alternative milk replacers for artificially reared lambs
• The effect of nutrition on the worm burden of ewes around lambing
• The effect of polyunsaturated fat source on milk composition