Animal Welfare Research Group

Simple winter housing systems for sheep - Consequences for health, welfare, production and economy (FåreBygg 2013-2016)

The primary objective is to provide scientifically based recommendations for increasing sustainability in future Norwegian sheep production - by investigating relationships between simple housing designs, management and stockmanship, and sheep health, welfare, production and economy. Secondary objectives will be addressed in four Work Packages: WP1 will document the impact of simple housing systems and access to outdoor runs on health, welfare and production, and investigate the influence of different housing and management systems and farmers’ work satisfaction on the quality of stockmanship. WP2 will investigate effects of feeding space for pregnant ewes on feed intake, feeding behavior and lamb weight, feed wastage at different feeder designs, the effect of frozen silage at low temperatures, and the effect of space allowance. WP3 will provide more information about indoor lambing systems and effects on lamb survival, growth and labour input. WP4 will evaluate labour requirements and economic returns of simple housing systems and management routines for sheep.