Summary
MLA LambMax Australia was designed to help avoid the decline in the national flock by addressing reproductive efficiency in the dominant maternal genotype, the Merino. It was also designed as a step towards the implementation of clean, green and ethical systems for sheep management. Thus, it tested aspects of focus feeding, lambing management, and non-hormonal management of the timing of lambing.
Our initial objective was to respond to the dearth of science teams working in Australia on the broader aspects of sheep reproduction. We thus established the LambMax Team international-quality personnel with essential techniques and equipment who could research the targeted reproductive issues Dr Carolina Violes Gil, Ms Beth Paganoni, and Dr Penny Hawken. The team connected with local, national and international collaborators on a comprehensive set of studies, including 8 large on-farm experiments. A novel and major dimension to the work on fecundity was the development of the first-wave model in which follicle waves in the ovary are synchronised to increase experimental power.
From 3-years work, the LambMax Team produced 22 written reports (refereed articles in journals, books, conferences), presented 17 conference papers, made 9 major communications in industry forums, and had their work aired in mass media on at least 18 occasions. Amongst the scientific publications produced to date, two stand out:
i) the description of the first-wave model, an experimental protocol that has the potential to revolutionise research on ovulation rate;
ii) the discovery that teasers induce the production of new cells in the brain of the ewe in areas that are involved in the formation of memory.
Among the industry recommendations produced to date, three need to be highlighted:
i) Short-term supplementation (6-17 days) to increase fecundity is only worthwhile in ewes of poor-low body condition (CS=2), and that supplement can be supplied as lupin grain or as other feedstuffs (eg, soya-maize);
ii) In focus feeding for fecundity, it is not necessary to avoid supplementation into early pregnancy to avoid embryo loss;
iii) To use teasing to synchonise lambing, it is only necessary to maintain the ewes in complete isolation from the specific males that will be used for teasing.
Behind these recommendations is a considerable depth of data, and a range of solid outcomes, that are relevant to the future of the Australian sheep industries and, therefore, to the planning for R&D.
