Milking performance of East Friesian Poll Dorset cross ewe
hoggets
S-A.N. Newman and W. Stieffel
AgResearch, Flock House Agricultural Centre, Private Bag 1900,
Bulls 5452, New Zealand.
Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production. 1999, 59: 125-128
The milking performance of East Friesian Poll Dorset cross and
Poll Dorset hoggets in a commercial milking system was studied at Flock
House Agricultural Centre. Hoggets were milked twice daily from 2-4 days
post-lambing on a 30 bale rotary platform for about 102 days. Live
weight of the Poll Dorset and East Friesian cross hoggets were similar
(P>0.05), both groups increased in weight from 51.5 ± 0.7 to
61.8 ± 0.8 kg over the trial period. Mean daily milk yield of the
East Friesian cross hoggets was significantly higheP<(P<0.01) than
for the Poll Dorset hoggets, 1.13 ± 0.06 and 0.87 ± 0.08 l/ewe/day,
respectively. Milk production of the East Friesian cross hoggets over
the lactation period was 30% higher in milk volume (113.1 ±± 6.0
versus 86.8 ± 7.9 l/ewe) but had a lower milk solids content (18.19
± 0.06 versus 18.48 ± 0.07 %) resulting in a 25% higher yield of
milk solids (204 ± 3 versus 164 ± 4 g/ewe/ day) than Poll
Dorset hoggets.
Keywords: NZSAPAB;
sheep milking; Poll Dorset; East Friesian; milk yield; milk
composition.
Last Updated 06-08-1999
