Physical Enrichment Enhances Growth in Artificially Reared Lambs

Precocious weaning is a common practise in large-scale sheep-dairy farming, despite causing distress and growth checks in lambs. We asked whether provision of physical enrichment objects would guard against growth checks during dairy lambs' first week in an artificial rearing system - arguably the most stressful period for artificially reared lambs. East Friesian Lacaune dairy ewe lambs aged approximately four to seven days were assigned to an Enrichment condition (N = 27) in which an object in the pen was changed daily, or a Control condition (N = 27) in which no object was available. Feeding and housing conditions were identical for both conditions. Lambs in the Enrichment condition experienced greater average daily weight gains (m = .33 kg; SD = .09) than Control-condition lambs (m = .21 kg; SD = .09) over the first week in the artificial rearing system (BF₁₀ = 3071.15). Thus, provision of physical enrichment may be particularly beneficial for lambs following precocious weaning.