Use of oat, lupin and field pea stubbles by grazing sheep

Abstract

Crops of oats (Avena sativa), lupins (Lupinus angustifolius) and field peas (Pisum arvense) harvested in January 1974 yielded respectively 1748, 1431 and 121 4 kg DM grain and 6880, 351 0 and 3350 kg DM stubble ha-1. After harvest the stubbles were grazed for 14 weeks with crossbred ewes and wethers at 11.25 and 22.5 ha-1. Straw from each stubble was of uniformly low digestibility (30 per cent), but legume straw was consistently higher in N than oat straw (1.4 vs. 0.77 per cent N). A strong preference by sheep for green material resulted in most of the crop residue remaining at the end of the experiment. There was a small liveweight gain at the tower stocking rate and a weight loss at the higher stocking rate (P < 0.01). Sheep grazing pea stubble at the lower stocking rate gained 3 kg more than those on oat stubble but the differences were not significant (P< 0.05)