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Environmental conditions and changes in body temperature of sheep in a Western Australian summer feedlot

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2017

C Stockman ,
A Barnes ,
D Pethick  and
S Maloney
C Stockman*
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
A Barnes
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
D Pethick
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
S Maloney
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
*
Email: [email protected]
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Extract

Feedlots are important in both fattening of lambs prior to slaughter and familiarizing sheep with a pellet diet prior to live export. Feedlotting is prominent in Western Australia, with 19% of prime lamb producers identifying feedlotting as their main finishing method (Connell et al. , 2002). Anecdotal reports are that temperatures within a West Australian feedlot during summer can often be in excess of 40˚C. Past research has shown that excessive heat load is a problem with feedlotted cattle (Hahn and Nienaber, 1993) and could be of particular importance when animals are being fed high energy rations; however, the extent of the problem in sheep is unknown. Previous work has shown that high temperatures lead to a decrease in feed intake and therefore productivity of the animal (Baile and Forbes, 1974). The aim of this study was to determine environmental conditions in a Western Australian feedlot during summer and to determine the core temperature of both wethers and ewes within this feedlot. The hypothesis was that sheep exposed to feedlot conditions during summer would have an increased core body temperature above normal.

Type
Poster presentations
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 2006 , March 2006 , pp. 143
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 The American Society of International Law

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References

Baile, C. A. & Forbes, J. M. 1974. Control of feed intake and regulation of energy balance in ruminants. Physiological Reviews. 54: 160-214 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Connell, P., Hooper, S., Helali, S. 2002. Australian Prime Lamb Industry 2002. Report of the Australian Agricultural and Grazing Industries Survey of Prime Lamb Producers, ABARE Research Report 02.3,Google Scholar
Canberra, Hahn, G. L., Nienaber, J. A. 1993. Characterising stress in feeder cattle. US MARC Beef Research Progress Report #4 (ARS-71):146, USDA, Washington DC Google Scholar