@article {3672,
	title = {Analysis of ewe body condition scores from selected flocks in the North Island of New Zealand},
	journal = {New Zealand Journal of Animal Science and Production},
	volume = {82},
	year = {2022},
	month = {01/2022},
	pages = {28-32},
	address = {Online},
	abstract = {<p>Ewe body condition score (BCS) is known to be associated with many ewe production traits. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were undertaken on existing datasets comprising 266,405 BCS observations from 86,444 individual two-tooth and mixed-age ewes on six commercially managed sheep farms in the North Island of New Zealand. The BCS observations were collected at pre-breeding, pregnancy diagnosis, set-stocking and weaning between the years 2009-2021. Overall, the majority of BCS observations were 2.5 or 3.0 while 9.7\% were BCS \&lt;2.5. At the key management times of pre-breeding and set-stocking, when it is recommended that ewes should be BCS 3.0 and above, 39\% and 50\% respectively of ewes were BCS \&lt;3.0. Mixed-age ewes had greater odds of being BCS \&lt;2.5 compared with two-tooth ewes, but with variation between BCS observation time, farm and year. While these data are from only six farms, if they are indicative of other North Island sheep farms they demonstrate significant room for improvement in individual ewe BCS for optimal production.</p>
},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Ridler AL and Flay KJ and Kenyon PR and Lawrence KE and Corner-Thomas RA}
}
@article {3672,
	title = {A comparison of the performance Romney and Wiltshire cross lambs to weaning},
	journal = {New Zealand Journal of Animal Science and Production},
	volume = {82},
	year = {2022},
	month = {01/2022},
	pages = {45-49},
	address = {Online},
	abstract = {<p>New Zealand coarse-woolled sheep farmers today barely recover the costs of shearing. One option is to introduce a self-shedding breed such as the Wiltshire. A strategy to transition to a Wiltshire flock is to cross a ewe flock with Wiltshire rams and in subsequent years backcross with Wiltshire rams. The first year of a long-term study found the performance of first cross Wiltshire progeny were not different to the base Romney flock in terms of birth weight and growth to weaning. The ewe lambs from this first breeding were then bred as ewe lambs to Wiltshire rams in late April 2021 to generate {\textthreequarters} Wiltshire lambs. There were no differences (P\&gt;0.05) in fertility or fecundity between the {\textonehalf} Wiltshire cross or Romney ewe lambs. There were no differences in birth, docking or weaning weight with the exception that single-born {\textthreequarters} Wiltshire cross lambs had higher growth (P\&lt;0.05) from birth to weaning than their Romney counterparts. This effect was not (P\&gt;0.05) observed in twin lambs. Combined these results indicate to date that there are no negative impacts of introducing Wiltshire rams to a mixed-age Romney ewe flock in relation to ewe performance to 15 months of age and the performance of their {\textthreequarters} progeny to weaning.</p>
},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Corner-Thomas RA and Ridler AL and Kenyon PR and Andrews CJ and Burnham DL and Blair HT and Morris ST}
}
@article {3672,
	title = {A comparison of the ewe reproductive performance of Romney ewes bred to Romney or Wiltshire rams and the growth of their  progeny to weaning},
	journal = {New Zealand Journal of Animal Science and Production},
	volume = {81},
	year = {2021},
	month = {01/2022},
	pages = {136-140},
	address = {Online},
	abstract = {This study reports the results of the first cross breeding of Romney ewes with Wiltshire rams as part of a grading-up transition. Romney mixed-age ewes were bred to either Romney (n=200) or Wiltshire rams (n=349) in March 2020. Ewe breeding pattern (cycle bred), reproductive performance (pregnancy and fecundity rates) and lambing performance (lambing rate, lamb birth and weaning live weight and lamb survival) were recorded. The reproductive performance of ewes bred to either Romney or Wiltshire rams showed few differences. There were no differences (P>0.05) in pregnancy, fecundity or lambing rates of ewes bred to either Romney or Wiltshire rams although minor differences (P<0.05) in the breeding pattern were observed. Lamb live weights at birth and in mid-lactation did not differ (P>0.05) among single, twin and triplet lambs sired by either Romney or Wiltshire rams, however at weaning Romney-sired triplet lambs were heavier than Wiltshire triplets (P<0.05). At weaning, a small percentage (1.6\%) of Wiltshire lambs showed early signs of fleece shedding. Combined, these results suggest that in this flock there was little
impact of introducing Wiltshire rams to a mixed-age Romney ewe flock on ewe reproductive performance and the growth of the F1 progeny to weaning. 

Keywords: Wiltshire; Romney; reproduction; growth; shedding},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Corner-Thomas RA and Ridler AL and Kenyon PR and Blair HT and Morris ST}
}
@article {3672,
	title = {Farm-management tools: reasons for the decision not to use specific tools},
	journal = {New Zealand Journal of Animal Science and Production},
	volume = {79},
	year = {2019},
	month = {07/2019},
	pages = {125-130},
	address = {Palmerston North},
	abstract = {There are a large number of management tools available to farmers, however, some are utilised by only a small percentage. The reasons behind the choice not to use a particular tool were investigated using a postal questionnaire that was distributed to all New Zealand sheep farmers in 2014. Farmers were asked first to indicate from a list of 40 farm-management tools those they had used in the previous three years. For tools they had not used, they were asked to select one from a list of eight reasons. A total of 1659 usable questionnaires were received. The most commonly cited reason for not using any given tool was {\textquotedblleft}not relevant to my situation{\textquotedblright} (50.3\%) followed by {\textquotedblleft}benefits not apparent{\textquotedblright} (15.3\%) and {\textquotedblleft}it{\textquoteright}s an unwanted complication{\textquotedblright} (15.0\%). Demographic factors (age, education, gender, farm type and flock size) influenced the reasons for non-use of 20 of the 22 tools. Reasons for non-use of fecundity-boosting vaccine or quarantine treatment for footrot were not influenced (P>0.05) by any demographic factors. The results suggest that although many farmers do not see the relevance of particular tools to their enterprise, demographic factors can influence their reasons for not using a tool.  },
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Corner-Thomas RA and Kenyon PR and Morris ST and Ridler AL and Hickson RE and Greer AW and Logan CM and Blair HT}
}
@article {3672,
	title = {Differences in birth weight and neonatal survival rate of lambs born to ewe hoggets or mature ewes},
	journal = {New Zealand Journal of Animal Science and Production},
	volume = {78},
	year = {2018},
	month = {07/2018},
	pages = {16-20},
	address = {Lincoln},
	abstract = {This experiment investigated differences in birth weights and survival in lambs born to hogget and mature ewes. It included 1082 mature ewes with a scanning rate of 1.87 fetuses per ewe joined and 1026 hoggets with a scanning rate of 0.80 fetuses per hogget joined, that were bred together, and lambed separately, under commercial farming conditions. At lambing, birth weight, lamb vigour score, and ewe maternal behaviour score were recorded. Lambs born to hoggets were lighter and less vigorous than lambs born to mature ewes (P<0.05). Single-born lambs were heavier at birth (P<0.05), and had greater survival at birth (P<0.05) than did twin-born lambs. Twin-born lambs were heavier (P<0.05) at birth, and had greater survival at birth (P<0.05) than triplets. There was an interaction of dam age and birth rank on lamb survival to weaning (P<0.01). At all birth ranks lambs born to hoggets had lower survival to weaning than lambs born to mature ewes, and the difference in survival increased with increasing birth rank. Lambs that had a vigour score of 1 had lower survival (83.5\%; P<0.05) than lambs that had a vigour score of either 2 or 3 (88.6- and 91.4\%, respectively). Maternal behaviour score did not affect lamb survival (P>0.05). Lambs born to hoggets are at greater risk of mortality, so farmers need to prioritise their time and resources towards hoggets at lambing time.},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Pettigrew EJ and Hickson RE and Blair HT and Griffiths KJ and Ridler AL and Morris ST and Kenyon PR}
}
@article {3672,
	title = {Investigation into udder characteristics, mastitis and milk production in crossbred sheep},
	journal = {New Zealand Journal of Animal Science and Production},
	volume = {78},
	year = {2018},
	month = {07/2018},
	pages = {82-87},
	address = {Lincoln},
	abstract = {Associations between udder characteristics, milk yield, milk somatic cell counts (SCC) and prevalence of mastitis were evaluated
in 121 twin-suckled crossbred non-dairy ewes at four, eight and twelve weeks after parturition. Overall, milk production decreased
with time, being 1.09 {\textpm} 0.04 litres per four hours at week four of lactation, 0.68 {\textpm} 0.02 litres at week eight and 0.48 {\textpm} 0.01 litres at
week twelve with corresponding mean SCC of 0.32 x 106 cells mL-1, 0.39 x 106 cells mL-1 and 0.28 x 106 cells mL-1, respectively.
Incidence of mastitis was 12.7\%, 9.8\% and 8.9\% for weeks 4, 8 and 12, respectively. Of the 20 individuals that displayed SCC
indicative of mastitis, only 5 had elevated SCC at more than one sampling time. No consistent association was observed between
SCC and visual scores for udder depth, udder distention, degree of separation or teat placement (P>0.05 for all). Milk volume and
weight of lamb was greater for ewes with an udder depth of 3 compared with 4 with no other associations evident (P>0.05). Overall,
the incidence of subclinical mastitis was low but present in this flock with the udder characteristics assessed here providing poor
indicators of either mastitis or milk production.},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Yusuf OM and Logan CM and Ridler AL and Greer AW}
}
@conference {3672,
	title = {BRIEF COMMUNICATION: The use of farm-management tools by New Zealand sheep farmers: changes with time},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {76},
	year = {2016},
	month = {07/2016},
	pages = {78-80},
	address = {Adelaide},
	abstract = {The utilisation of farm-management tools by New
Zealand sheep farmers can support on-farm decision
making, thus facilitating improvements in productivity and
profitability of the farming enterprise. There are numerous
management tools available to farmers, for example, a
recent report identified 127 tools that were available to
New Zealand farmers (Allen \& Wolfert 2011). Although
a large number of tools are accessible to farmers, a survey
of sheep farmers conducted in 2012 by Corner-Thomas
et al. (2015) identified many that were utilised by only a
small percentage of farmers. This indicates that there is the
potential for increased uptake of management tools which,
if relevant, may lead to benefits in on-farm productivity.
The aim of the current study was to determine for
sheep farmers in New Zealand, if use of farm-management
tools had changed over a two-year period.},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Corner-Thomas RA and Kenyon PR and Morris ST and Ridler AL and Hickson RE and Greer AW and Logan CM and Blair HT}
}
@conference {3678,
	title = {BRIEF COMMUNICATION: Ewe ultra-sound pregnancy diagnosis and its use by New Zealand farmers},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {74},
	year = {2014},
	month = {06/2014},
	pages = {65-67},
	address = {Napier},
	abstract = {Ultra-sound pregnancy diagnosis can be a valuable management tool for sheep farmers. The benefits include early identification of non-pregnant (dry) ewes which can be culled, freeing up valuable feed for pregnant ewes (Blair 1986) and the identification of single, twin and triplet fetuses, allowing ewes to be fed based on their specific nutritional requirements during pregnancy (Garrick 1998). In addition, selection of lambing paddocks can be made based on the number of fetuses identified (Garrick 1998).},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Corner-Thomas RA and Kenyon PR and Morris ST and Ridler AL and Hickson RE and Greer AW and Logan CM and Blair HT}
}
