B.Ag.Sci. Honours (2018)
Feed conversion efficiency of sheep grazing lucerne and cocksfoot based pastures (PDF unavailable)
Research Overview
Morgan compared dryland lucerne and cocksfoot pastures during their fifth year (2017/2018) at Lincoln University. It was a wetter than normal year with 745 mm of rain. Using Ashley Dene’s Coopworth ewe lambs, Morgan measured an annual liveweight yield of 1018 kg/ha and an annual apparent feed intake of 17 t DM/ha for lucerne compared with 433 kg/ha and 7.5 t DM/ha for cocksfoot. However, feed conversion efficiency was similar for both pastures at about 17 kg of DM for every kg of liveweight gain. Morgan was supervised by Dr Alistair Black.