1. The effect of grazing multispecies swards on ewe and lamb performance
Cornelia Grace
M.B. Lynch, F.P. Campion, R. Fritch, H. Sheridan, T.M. Boland
International Conference: Steps to Sustainable Livestock,
12-15th of January 2016, University of Bristol, UK.

2. Irish Agriculture Primary Production Targets
Food Wise 2025:
Increase the value of exports by 85%, agri-food products and primary production by 65% and creation of jobs in agri-food sector
Key focus on sustainability, fundamental to this is grass-fed livestock
Variable Cost of Lowland sheep/ewe 2014:
Teagasc, 2014

3. Current global practise
Grasslands cover about 25% of the earth’s surface, providing the majority of forage for ruminants (O’Mara, 2012)
PRG is the most widely sown grass species in the temperate regions of Europe (Grogan and Gilliland, 2011)
Heavy reliance on chemical nitrogen fertilisers
Volatile price
Potentially unsustainable production
Environmental impacts (water, soil & biodiversity)

4. Why Multispecies Swards?
Increasing species richness has been shown to increase biomass production (Nyfeler et al., 2009)
N fixation by legumes in the mixture
Higher biomass yield from lower N input (Finn et al. 2013)
Niche complementarity
-Rooting depth
-Timing of growth
-Enhanced usage of available nutrients
Biodiversity
Sustainable
Competitive interactions between species in the sward are weakened in the sward and individual species have different growth habits and use resources differently to one another maximising the growth potential over growing season
Inclusion of forage herbs have potential to increase nutrient composition of a mix
Rooting depth: prg is shallow rooting uses nutrients in the uppers layers of the soil. Herbs longer rooting depths can use the nutrients in the soil profile and make them available for grazing
Increase below ground and above ground biodiversity

5. Multispecies Mix
Seasonality
Persistency
Nutritive value

6. DM yield (kg/ha/yr) of multispecies mixes at 90 kg N/ha/yr and PRG only swards at 90 and 250 kg N/ha/yr
P<0.05 c
Bracket around 2015 only
Swards or pasture instead of ‘mixes’
You need to explain each treatment in this graph, remember always explain your axis!
Grace et. al., 2015

7. Hypothesis
Offering multispecies swards to ewes and lambs will increase animal performance compared with PRG only

8. Materials and Methods: Experimental Design
Completely randomised design with 4 sward types:
PRG: PRG 163kg N/ha/yr
PRG & WC: PRG & white 90kg N/ha/yr
6 Species mix: 6 90kg N/ha/yr
(PRG, Timothy, White Clover, Red Clover, Plantain, Chicory)
9 Species mix: 9 90kg N/ha/yr
(PRG, Timothy, Cocksfoot, White Clover, Red Clover, Birdsfoot Trefoil, Plantain, Chicory, Yarrow)

9. Methods
30 twin suckling stocking rate of 12.5 ewes/ha
Rotational grazed 5 paddocks/farmlet
When grass supply was low, sheep were supplemented with concentrates as required:
PRG: 8 kg/ewe
PRG & WC: 19 kg/ewe
6 Species Mix: 7 kg/ewe
9 Species Mix: 18 kg/ewe

10. Sheep measurements Ewe weight and BCS recorded on 6 occasions
Lambs weighed fortnightly
Lambs drafted for slaughter at 45kg liveweight
Lamb Faecal Egg Count measured fortnightly
After weaning at 14 weeks, lambs grazed ahead of ewes, ewes grazed from 5cm to 4cm

11. Results

12. The effect of sward type on ewe weight and BCS
PRG
PRG & WC
6 Species Mix
9 Species Mix
SEM
P-Value
Weaning weight (kg) 77 78 82 81
2.4 NS
Breeding weight (kg) 83
2.1
Weaning BCS
2.9
3.0
0.73
Breeding BCS
3.16a
3.15a
3.12a
3.29b
0.580
<0.05

13. The effect of sward type on lamb weaning weights
+4 kg b a
4 kg difference between T1 and T3

14. The effect of sward type on average daily gain (ADG) from birth to weaning (g/day)ab a
303g/day for T3 compared to 285g/day for PRG

15. The effect of sward type on average daily gain from birth to slaughter (g/day)
T3 279g/day
T1 238g/day

16. The effect of sward type on days to slaughter

17. The effect of sward type on faecal egg counts (Trichostrongyle) at 10 weeks of ageab
9 Species mix= significantly lower than PRG and PRG & WC at 10 weeks, but only numerically different than 6 Species
PRG is approaching significantly higher than 6 species
PRG & WC is approaching significantly lhigher than 6 species

18. The effect of swards type on the time between first and second anthelmintic treatment

19. Conclusion
Multispecies pasture mixes increased animal performance and reduced days to slaughter
The 6 Species mixture resulted in highest growth rates in lambs
Lambs grazing multispecies swards had lower parasitic burden
Year one of a two year study
Multispecies = 6 + 9?
Ewes grazing 9 Species mix had higher BCS at breeding compared to all other treatments (p<0.05)

20. Thank you! Any questions? Contact: cornelia.grace@ucdconnect.ie