EWE AND lamb performance, plus lamb eating quality studies have confirmed the potential of forage chicory in UK sheep production, reports EBLEX, the industry body for beef and lamb levy-payers in England.

An on-farm trial in West Sussex used EID technology in the collection of data from 600 Southdown cross, Suffolk cross and Lleyn lambs finished on clover swards with either chicory or Italian ryegrass over the past season. It showed that lambs on the chicory sward growing an average 20% faster than their contemporaries, mainly as a result of a two point D-value advantage.

These results echo those of a University of Cumbria study, at Newton Rigg, in which North Country Mule ewes and their Texel-cross lambs were grazed for six weeks on plots planted with a standard grazing mixture with or without chicory.

There, the lambs on the chicory mix gained about 20g/day (12%) more than their contemporaries to end the trial nearly 0.5 kg/head heavier.

At the same time, the chicory-grazed ewes lost noticeably less weight than those on the non-chicory sward and maintained their body condition better, suggesting a worthwhile improvement in their nutrition.

Although faecal eggs counts were too low overall for any significant differences to be recorded, the Newton Rigg results also tend to support suggestions of a round worm control benefit from chicory grazing in both ewes and lambs.

Preliminary results from parallel work investigating the eating quality of lamb carcases at SAC, in Edinburgh, further indicate that chicory grazing does not appear to negatively effect the quality of the lamb produced. Indeed, they suggest it may even increase the juiciness of female lambs.