Dairy sheep production research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA – a review

Table 9 Lactation performance of crossbred dairy ewes ¹ unsupplemented or supplemented with corn during the grazing season

Trait	Whole shelled corn supplementation, kg DM/ewe/d				SEM	Linear contrast, P-value
Trait	0.00	0.41	0.82	1.24	SEM	Linear contrast, P-value
Test day milk yield, kg	1.30^a	1.32^a	1.41^b	1.44^b	0.03	0.001
Test day FPCM² yield, kg	1.26^ab	1.25^a	1.35^c	1.33^bc	0.03	0.006
Milk fat,%	6.26^b	6.40^b	6.09^b	5.89^a	0.11	0.001
Milk protein,%	5.29	5.41	5.37	5.39	0.04	0.093
Milk urea nitrogen, mg/dL	18.9^a	17.1^b	13.6^c	13.6^c	0.3	0.001

¹Multiparous crossbred ewes of East Friesian and Lacaune breeding, n = 24 ewes per treatment.
²6.5% fat-corrected and 5.8% protein-corrected milk yield.
^a,b,cMeans within a row with no superscript in common are different (P < 0.05).

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