A comparison of liveweight gain of lambs weaned early onto a herb-clover mixed sward and weaned conventionally onto a ryegrass-clover pasture and herb-clover mixed sward

The aim of the present study was to identify the impact of early weaning of lambs at approximately seven weeks of age onto a herb-clover mix on the liveweight gain of lambs and their dams. In 2015, twin-born lambs that weighed a minimum of 16 kg (n = 134) were randomly allocated to one of three treatments: i) Early-weaned (58 days after the midpoint of lambing) onto an unrestricted allowance (>1,200 kg dry matter/ha) of herb-clover mix (HerbEW); ii) Lambs+dams unweaned onto an unrestricted allowance of herb-clover mix until conventional weaning (95 days after the midpoint of lambing) (HerbCW); iii) Lambs+ dams unweaned onto an unrestricted allowance of grass-clover pasture until conventional weaning (GrassCW). In 2016, twin-born lambs that weighed a minimum of 16 kg (n = 170) were randomly allocated to one of four treatments: i), ii), iii) (similar to 2015) and iv) Lambs+ dams unweaned onto a restricted allowance (0.05), but were greater than HerbEW lambs. In 2016, HerbCW lambs had greater (p0.05) but were greater (p