caa a22 4500 388059907 CHVBK 20180307125117.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e199806 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S1357729800009231 doi S1357729800009231 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S1357729800009231 Effects on maternal and foetal traits of feeding supplement to grazing pregnant ewes [Elektronische Daten] Thirty single-bearing Merino ewes were used to examine the effect of feeding supplement, from 91 to 140 days of gestation, on changes in chemical composition of the ewes, on the relationships with live weight and body condition score and on the foetus. Ewes grazed a perennial ryegrass pasture and were offered either no supplement or 500 g per head per day of a concentrate supplement from days 30 to 90 and (or) from days 91 to 140 of pregnancy. Maternal carcass and non-carcass components, uterine wall, foetus and placenta plus cotyledons were chemically analysed. Live weight (LW) and body condition score (BCS) on day 140 were both affected by supplementation during late pregnancy, mobilization of protein and fat being lower in animals receiving supplement. BCS accounted for more variation than LW in the carcass fat depot. Because this depot was the most important source of energy from days 91 to 140 of gestation, this suggests that BCS is a useful estimator of mobilization of maternal fat reserves during this stage of pregnancy. The ability to mobilize reserves and protect foetal growth by Merino ewes in southern Europe, where large fluctuations in grass growth rate exposes them to considerable undernutrition as pregnancy proceeds, was confirmed in this experiment. However, when the nutritional regime is extreme, supplementary feeding to the ewes is recommended, in order to make the whole system economically profitable. Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1998 body condition nationallicence ewes nationallicence live weight nationallicence pregnancy nationallicence supplementary feeding nationallicence Frutos P. Estación Agrícola Experimental, Consejo Superior de Investigations Científicas, Apartado 788, 24080-León, Spain Buratovich O. Estación Agrícola Experimental, Consejo Superior de Investigations Científicas, Apartado 788, 24080-León, Spain Giràldez F. J. Estación Agrícola Experimental, Consejo Superior de Investigations Científicas, Apartado 788, 24080-León, Spain Mantecòn A. R. Estación Agrícola Experimental, Consejo Superior de Investigations Científicas, Apartado 788, 24080-León, Spain Wright I. A. Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH Animal Science Cambridge University Press 66/3(1998-06), 667-673 1357-7298 66:3<667 1998 66 ASC https://doi.org/10.1017/S1357729800009231 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S1357729800009231 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Frutos P. Estación Agrícola Experimental, Consejo Superior de Investigations Científicas, Apartado 788, 24080-León, Spain NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Buratovich O. Estación Agrícola Experimental, Consejo Superior de Investigations Científicas, Apartado 788, 24080-León, Spain NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Giràldez F. J. Estación Agrícola Experimental, Consejo Superior de Investigations Científicas, Apartado 788, 24080-León, Spain NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Mantecòn A. R. Estación Agrícola Experimental, Consejo Superior de Investigations Científicas, Apartado 788, 24080-León, Spain NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Wright I. A. Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Animal Science Cambridge University Press 66/3(1998-06), 667-673 1357-7298 66:3<667 1998 66 ASC CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge