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Technique of Weighing the Grazing Animal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2016

J. C. Tayler*
Affiliation:
The Grassland Research Institute, Hurley, Berks
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Extract

In pasture research and feeding trials using the growing or fattening animal to provide a measure of output, a first essential is the accurate determination of liveweight. Recent reports of trials using bullocks, sheep and dairy stock (Grassl. Res. Sta. Rep., 1953; Waite et al., 1952; Dodsworth and Campbell, 1953) have emphasised that liveweight gains can be misleading when a large and unknown proportion of the gain is due to contents of the stomachs and intestines. This ‘ fill ’ in the capacious alimentary tract of the ruminant provides a large source of experimental error in the measurement of liveweight; it can also obscure the trend of useful liveweight gain, i.e. carcass increase.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1954

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References

Dodsworth, T. L., & Campbell, , W. H. MCK., 1953. Report on a further experiment to compare the fattening values, for beef cattle, of silage made from grass cut at different stages of growth, together with the results of some supplementary experiments. J. agric. Sci., 43: 166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grassland Research Station Report, 1953. P. 62.Google Scholar
Hughes, G. P., & Harker, K. W., 1950. The technique of weighing bullocks on summer grass. J. agric. Sci., 40: 403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Tayler, J. C., 1953. The grazing behaviour of bullocks under two methods of management. Brit. J. Anim. Behav., 1: 72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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