@article {3672,
	title = {BRIEF COMMUNICATION: Influence of birth rank on cause of lamb deaths prior to weaning},
	journal = {New Zealand Journal of Animal Science and Production},
	volume = {80},
	year = {2020},
	month = {09/2020},
	pages = {21-23},
	address = {Online},
	abstract = {Post-mortem examinations were carried out on 1098 lambs that died between birth and weaning at 12 weeks of age to evaluate the
causes of mortality in a high-fertility flock. These comprised 95\% of all lamb deaths from a total of 14732 lambs born over nine
years. Starvation/exposure was the biggest cause of lamb deaths (26\%) followed by infection (20\%), hypoxia (16\%) and prenatal
deaths (16\%). Prenatal deaths were 18\%, 12\% and 10\%; deaths due to hypoxia were 18\%, 15\% and 11\% and to starvation were
28\%, 26\% and 12\% for triplets, twins and singles respectively. There were no significant differences between birth ranks for
deaths from infection.

Keywords: mortality; litter size; birth rank; dystocia; starvation; prenatal; single; twin; triplet; survival; sheep},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Thomson BC and Smith NB and Ward KR and Muir PD}
}
@article {3672,
	title = {Calf-rearing systems on dairy farms and specialist calf rearing units: results of a New Zealand survey},
	journal = {New Zealand Journal of Animal Science and Production},
	volume = {78},
	year = {2018},
	month = {07/2018},
	pages = {173-176},
	address = {Lincoln},
	abstract = {Calf-rearing practices were surveyed on 297 dairy farms with an average of 82 heifer and 24 bull calves reared. Only 21\% of
the properties fed colostrum immediately on arrival at the dairy shed, and 30\% did not feed their calves for at least 8 hours after
pickup. Rearing systems were highly variable although most fed twice a day on high milk volumes. Many (40\%) did not know
how much milk they fed to their calves and for those who did, the average was 316 litres per calf. Calves were weaned off milk
at an average of 9.7 weeks. Calf-rearing practices were surveyed on 100 bull-calf-rearing properties rearing on average 259 calves
annually. Larger rearers (>600 calves) tended to feed whole milk whereas smaller rearers tended to feed calf-milk replacers. Most
rearers fed milk once a day and fed an average of 155 litres/calf over rearing. Calves were weaned at an average of 6.5 weeks. Bullcalf
rearers feed to a weight target and a budget which resulted in a greater focus on performance and feed costs. Dairy farmers
could significantly reduce both costs and time inputs by monitoring performance, feeding milk once a day and weaning earlier.},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Thompson BC and Muir PD and Ward KR}
}
