New Zealand's love affair with lamb is set to grow stronger after scientists figured out how to get sheep pregnant more than once a year and produce spring lambs out of season.
Through a series of experiments, scientists from AgResearch have established the precise timing and types of hormones required for sheep to give birth to healthy lambs outside of their usual mating season.
Researchers say their method of using hormones to induce ovulation in ewes outside of breeding season successfully resulted in a high pregnancy rate as well as twin lambs in some ewes.
Scientists were able to induce the onset of puberty in young ewes and control seasonality to replicate physiological processes that occur during the natural breeding season.
The new treatments were trialled at a commercial farm near Gisborne, where scientists observed the rate of pregnancy was lower in ewes than those who had not undergone treatment.
The study was published in the international journal Animal Reproduction Science.
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