Response of wool growth to level of base ration and casein supplements

Abstract

Level of nutrition is known to have a profound effect on level of wool production. As wool is a protein, much experimental work has placed emphasis on testing the effects on wool growth, of feeding different levels of protein, or investigating the importance of quality of proteins. While there is ample evidence to show that supplements of treated casein produce a wool growth response when the level of the base diet is at or below maintenance, there is little evidence of positive responses to treated casein when feed intakes are above maintenance. It appears that there may be an interaction between the level of the base diet and the ability of an animal to respond to treated casein. This thesis was conducted over the summer period of high wool growth with young non-pregnant Romney ewes and describes an attempt to determine the effect of base level of nutrition on the ability of sheep with a high potential for wool growth, to respond to different levels of supplementation with both normal and formalin-treated casein.