12/10/2020
PhD student Holly Phillips has been busy on Massey University farms over the last two summers doing her trial work looking at forage feeds for lambs and meat quality.
Our forage agronomist Holly Phillips recently started her PhD nicknamed "Forages for Fat" at Massey University, when she began investigating the effects of finishing diet on live weight gain, meat quality and fat characteristics.
Holly’s research started in 2018, measuring live weight gain and meat quality characteristics of lambs on six different summer forages. Lambs were EID tagged, allowing their performance to be closely monitored and followed through the abattoir.
During this trial, Pallaton Raphno® impressed everyone with its performance in a very dry summer. All other forages including chicory, ryegrass, leafy turnip and red clover struggled, carrying significantly lower stocking rates. Holly and the team recognised the potential of Raphno® in this dry season and initial meat quality results encouraged further investigation of the relationship between finishing diet and meat quality.
A second farmlet study was completed earlier this year to further investigate the impact of lamb diet on meat quality and fat characteristics. Another key aspect of this trial was to determine the increased forage yields, stocking rates and red meat yield per hectare associated with drought tolerant Raphno® when compared to chicory or perennial ryegrass / white clover pastures.
We'll be sharing some of this information with you over the next few days!
