A comparison of sires of Suffolk and Dutch Texel breeds and ewes of Greyface, Suffolk Cheviot and Dutch Texel breeds in terms of food intake, prolificacy and lamb growth rates

A comparison was made over 2 years of sires of Suffolk and Dutch Texel bree ds and ewes of Greyface (Border Leicester x Scottish Blackface), Suffolk Ch eviot and Dutch Texel breeds in tel ms of food intake, prolificacy and lamb growth rates under a grass-based system of production. Suffolk Cheviot ewe s consumed significantly more silage dry matter than the Greyface ewes in b oth years of the study. There was no overall difference between Greyface an d Suffolk Cheviot ewes in terms of prolificacy. However lambs from Suffolk Cheviot ewes had a higher growth rate than lambs from Greyface ewes from bi rth to weaning in year 1 (P < 0.01). In the comparison of the three ewe bre eds sired by Dutch Texel rams in year 2, Dutch Texel ewes produced a simila r number of lambs to the other genotypes but had a higher incidence of diff icult lambings, higher lamb mortality and consequently a lower number of la mbs weaned. Purebred Dutch Texel male lambs had lower growth rates than cro ssbred Dutch Texel lambs (143 compared with 158 g/day for lambs from Greyfa ce ewes and 166 (s.e. 13.4) g/day for lambs from Suffolk Cheviot ewes in ye ar 1 and 183 compared with 251 and 248 respectively (s.e. 10.9) g/day in ye ar 2). Lambs sired by Suffolk rams had higher growth rates than those sired by Dutch Texel rams (252 compared with 224 (s.e. 5.4) g/day) in year 2.