B.Ag.Sci. Honours (2019)
Pasture production and ram lamb growth rate from a diverse or simple pasture during autumn (PDF unavailable)
Research Overview
Geraldine quantified the botanical composition, herbage productivity, and lamb liveweight gain from three-year old diverse (Italian ryegrass, red clover and plantain) and simple (perennial ryegrass and white clover) pasture swards under autumn rotational grazing at Ashley Dene. Diverse pasture produced 12.2% more pre-graze yield (2471 kg DM/ha) than simple pasture (2171 kg DM/ha) with 5.8% greater ram lamb accumulated liveweight production (52.2 cf. 49.2 kg LW). Similar pasture utilisation was recorded on both Diverse and Simple swards (1040 and 1016 kg DM/ha respectively), but liveweight was higher on the diverse pasture due to greater nutritive quality. Geraldine was supervised by Dr Thomas Maxwell, and her work was partly funded by the Greener Pastures project.