Effects of continuous stocking with sheep or goats on sward composition and animal production from a grass and white clover pasture

Two groups of British Saanen does and two groups of Scottish Halfbred ewes, each rearing twin offspring, were continuously stocked on grass and white clover swards, maintained at a target surface height of 6 cm, over 2 years, In the second year there was either natural rearing or cross-fostering of offspring between animal species at parturition, In both years, for goats and sheep respectively, the total herbage mass was similar (3944 vs, 3634 kg DM ha(-1)) but the live clover mass was higher for goats (655 vs. 371 kg DM ha(-1); P < 0.01), as were the clover growing point numbers (4480 vs, 3509 thousands m(-2); P < 0.01) and stolen lengths (87.9 vs. 58.2 m m(-2); P < 0.001) measured in the sward, Daily liveweight(0.75) carried was higher on goat paddocks than sheep paddocks (732 vs. 660 kg(0.75) ha(-1); P < 0.05). Does lost more weight than ewes during lactation and :heir kids grew more slowly to 4 weeks than the lambs (e.g. in the first year, 183 vs, 280 g day(-1); P < 0.05). Grazing a sward containing a mixture of grass and clover with goats increased the amount of clover in the sward when compared with grazing by sheep. This suggests grazing by goats could be used as a management to increase clover content in mixtures of grass and clover, Kids grew more slowly than lambs and, in general, growth rates of the kids and lambs were little affected by the dam species that reared them.