Background: Small-grain winter cereals can be utilized as early spring pastures in temperate climates to relieve grazing pressure and potentially mitigate feed shortages. This study was conducted to determine the effects of triticale and oat cereal pastures grazed by sheep during early spring on forage yields, nutritive values, and nutritional requirements of sheep. Methods: The research was carried out over three consecutive years, from 2015 to 2017, at the Sheep Research Institute in Bandırma-Balıkesir, located in the Marmara region of Türkiye. The treatments were arranged in a completely randomized block design, with the two forage species, triticale and oat, randomized within each of three blocks. The animal material for the study consisted of 24 Karacabey Merino sheep, each 2 years old, with an average live weight of 57.6 ± 0.5 kg, all in the late lactation stage. In each replication, four sheep were included, resulting in a total of 12 sheep grazing in each of the triticale and oat pastures. The sheep grazed exclusively on the cereal pastures without any additional feed, and had unrestricted access to water throughout the entire period of the experiment. The dry matter yields (DMY), dry matter intakes (DMI), nutritive values, and mineral contents of the cereal species were determined. Results: The DMY showed significant differences over the years (P < 0.05). No differences in DMY were observed between pastures, with oats yielding 11.99 t ha⁻¹ and triticale yielding 11.08 t ha⁻¹. During the grazing period, the change in DMY was significant in all years (P < 0.05). The average DMI of the sheep was 2,003.5 g d⁻¹ for triticale and 2,156.6 g d⁻¹ for oat, respectively, and DMI exhibited no significant differences across pastures. Although there was no difference in DMI between 2015 and 2016, the lowest consumption occurred in 2017 (P < 0.05). Additionally, while DMI showed different trends each year based on the periods, it generally decreased by the end of the grazing period. While both pastures provided similar nutritive values, significant differences were observed in the crude protein (CP), acid detergent fiber (ADF), in vitro true DM digestibility (DDM), and metabolisable energy (ME) values across the years. Over the years, as the grazing period progressed, CP levels decreased while neutral detergent fiber (NDF), ADF, and acid detergent lignin (ADL) increased, resulting in reduced DDM and ME values. The phosphorus (P) content in triticale was higher than in oats, but there were no differences in the content of other minerals between them. Between the years, significant differences were observed in the levels of phosphorus (P) and iron (Fe), while changes in other elements were insignificant. The variation in mineral content during the grazing process differed over the three years. Study results indicated that the nutritional values of triticale and oat pastures are similar, and both can effectively be used to provide sufficient feed to meet the early spring forage requirements for sheep.

Fifty-eight Karacabey Merino lambs were used to study the effects of feeding system (triticale pasture, oat pasture, or stall-fed), birth type (single or multiple), gender (male or female), and birth year (2016 or 2017) on various carcass and meat quality characteristics. Stall lambs had higher conformation (CS) and fatness (FS) scores, and higher meat L* and h* values than the two pasture groups, possibly due to higher fat content, while oat pasture lambs had the most tender meat. Single-born lambs had higher CS, FS, and Longissimus thoracis muscle section area, while females had higher subcutaneous and non-carcass fat deposits than their counterparts. Both single-born lambs and 2016-born lambs had higher meat a* and C* values than their counterparts. In conclusion, a pasture-based feeding system is more suitable for Karacabey Merino lambs than a stall feeding system, if lean meat and/or meat products are preferred. However, it should not be ignored that stall-fed lambs showed a better fattening performance in terms of conformation and fatness, during the same period.

In this study, total roughage production and its sufficiency for farm animals in Turkey was evaluated. Because of insufficient production, feed prices are relatively high and fluctuating in Turkey. It was estimated that, the total 40 363 210 tonnes of roughages production in Turkey was supplied by meadows and pastures (13 164 210 tonnes), shrublands (11 267 000 tonnes) and forage crops production (15 932 000 tonnes). In addition, total straw and stubble production was estimated as 31 074 800 tonnes for animal feed, indicating that half of the total roughages production in Turkey came from straw and stubble production. In Turkey, the large and small ruminant stock is composed of a total of 17 066 900 animal units and in order to meet only the maintenance requirements of these animals via roughage, 77 867 731 tons of roughage is needed in 2019. Considering the daily dry roughage requirement as 12.5 kg (approximately 2.5 percent of total 500 kg live weight), deficiency of daily feed amount was estimated as 1.032 kg per animal unit and a total of 6 429 720 tonnes in 2019 in Turkey. If shrublands, straw and stubble production is neglected or removed from the calculation, then total deficiency reaches at 48 771 521 tonnes year-1 (62.63% of the total feed requirement). For a rational animal feeding, not only the maintenance requirements of the animals but also, in addition to their maintenance requirements, at least 5-7 kg of milk production requires meeting from quality roughages. In this case, it is clear that the need for roughage will increase more. In Turkey, suffering from roughage shortage that adversely affecting production obtained from small and large ruminants, high quality forage production should be, at least, doubled by using every possible resource including natural rangelands, fallows, and cultivated lands effectively without compromising soil conservation and feed costs principles.

This study was conducted with the aim of determining the growth characteristics and survival rate of Karacabey Merino lambs, as well as the non-genetic factors affecting these traits. The study included data from a total of 17659 lambs and 12263 ewes raised in 30 herds between the years 2011 and 2016 as part of the National Sheep and Goat Improvement Project. The aver-age birth weight of the lambs was determined as 3.73 +/- 0.05 kg, the average 45th day live weight was 18.43 +/- 0.58 kg, the average weaning (average 91.8 days) weight was 31.83 +/- 0.24 kg, and the average daily live weight gain until weaning was 289.1 +/- 3.91 g. The average survival rate of lambs at weaning was calculated to be 95.67% +/- 1.15. The effects of the factors herd, birth year, birth type, birth season and sex were found significant for all traits (p<0.01). It was established that the mortality rate in lambs in large herds was higher during 6 years in which the project was carried out. Due to the high twinning rate in large herds, the number of lambs per worker is increased, and as a result, they cannot be adequately cared for. For this reason, large farms may be encouraged to increase workmanship services in addition to being provided with protective health practices for lambs throughout the birth period. On the other hand, it was determined that the twinning rate was low in small farms. On farms with fewer sheep populations, it may be advised to flush or administer exogenous hormone treatments to ewes in order to increase fertility and help them bear twins.

Bu çalışmada; Türkiye’nin Marmara Bölgesi’nde yer alan Balıkesir ilindeki ekstansif küçükbaş hayvancılık işletmelerinin yapısal özellikleri incelenerek, organik hayvancılığa geçiş olanaklarının belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bu amaçla Balıkesir ilinin tüm ilçeleri değerlendirmeye alınmış olup, bu ilçelerde ekstansif küçükbaş hayvan yetiştiriciliği yapılan 270 mahallede amaçlı örnekleme yöntemiyle seçilen 603 işletme araştırmanın materyalini oluşturmuştur. Anket çalışmasıyla işletme sahiplerinin sosyo-demografik özellikleri, hayvancılıkla ilgili yetiştirme, besleme ve sağlık uygulamaları ile organik hayvancılığa yönelik bilgi ve yaklaşımlarına ilişkin veriler toplanmıştır. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre işletme sahiplerinin % 87.40’ı 15 yılı aşkın süredir tarım yaptıklarını, % 79.93’ü bir üretici örgütüne üye olduklarını belirtmişlerdir. Koyunculuk işletmelerinin % 82.22’inde, keçi işletmelerinin ise % 78.43’ünde hiç hastalığa rastlanılmadığı bildirilmiştir. Koyunculuk işletmelerinin % 74.44’ünde, keçi işletmelerinin % 77.12’sinde hayvanlar yıl boyunca otlatma alanlarından yararlanabilmektedir. Koç ve teke katımı doğal aşım yoluyla gerçekleştirilmekte, doğan yavrular yaklaşık 3-4 ay ana sütü ile beslenmektedirler. Dursunbey ve İvrindi ilçelerinin bazı yöreleri ile Marmara adasında koyun ve keçi yetiştiriciliği çoğunlukla yerli ırklar ve melezleri ile yürütülmektedir. Bu yörelerde yapılmakta olan küçükbaş hayvancılık organik sistem ile büyük benzerlik göstermektedir. Söz konusu yörelerdeki küçükbaş hayvancılık işletmelerinin organik yem üretimi konusunda desteklenmesi, hayvansal üretimde söz sahibi iller arasında yer alan Balıkesir ilinin organik hayvansal üretimde de öncü olmasını sağlayacaktır. Nitekim çalışmada yetiştiricilerin % 70’den fazlasının organik hayvancılığa geçişe olumlu baktıkları belirlenmiştir. Ancak yetiştiricilere teknik bilgi ve organik hayvancılığa yönelik desteğin yanı sıra organik hayvancılık için örgütlenmeleri konusunda teşvik sağlanması gerekmektedir.