Genie
Well-Known Member
We are reading an article on pregnancy in sheep and a way to influence the gender by the maternal diet....
Research published in the Bio Med Central's open access journal Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology has demonstrated that ewes fed a diet enriched with polyunsaturated fats for one month prior to conception had a significantly higher chance of giving birth to male offspring.
Further they said the study ruled out body condition, weight of ewe, previous births and time of breeding.
They said it was the composition of the diet being consumed around the time of conception that was responsible for the sex/ratio effect.
I thought it might be interesting to monitor 3 or 4 of our brood mare's diet for a one month time frame prior to breeding and cut out any feed supplements other than salt or minerals to compare their foaling results to the mares on regular rations.
The end of the article states that these findings will be important to the livestock industry.
"Increasing or decreasing the amount of fat in feed during a breeding period could be a way of controlling the sex ratio of offspring born to a herd or a flock."
Research published in the Bio Med Central's open access journal Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology has demonstrated that ewes fed a diet enriched with polyunsaturated fats for one month prior to conception had a significantly higher chance of giving birth to male offspring.
Further they said the study ruled out body condition, weight of ewe, previous births and time of breeding.
They said it was the composition of the diet being consumed around the time of conception that was responsible for the sex/ratio effect.
I thought it might be interesting to monitor 3 or 4 of our brood mare's diet for a one month time frame prior to breeding and cut out any feed supplements other than salt or minerals to compare their foaling results to the mares on regular rations.
The end of the article states that these findings will be important to the livestock industry.
"Increasing or decreasing the amount of fat in feed during a breeding period could be a way of controlling the sex ratio of offspring born to a herd or a flock."