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The Effects of Injected Testosterone on Adult Ewes¹

Animal Husbandry Department²

Abstract

TESTOSTERONE is known to increase the rate and efficiency ofgain in growing-fattening beef cattle. However, this increase of gain is accompanied by a marked masculine development in both sexes. The following experiment was set up to determine if the use of testosterone would have any effect on rate of gain and development of masculine traits in adult ewes.

Experimental

Six purebred Hampshire and two Purebred Suffolk adult ewes varying considerably in age were divided into two groups of 3 Hampshire and 1 Suffolk each. One group was given testosterone while the other acted as control. All the ewes were culls from the breeding flock and were thin, but both groups were fed a good ration of grain and alfalfa during the experimental period.

The treated animals and the controls were kept together in a small enclosure and fed a fattening ration. They were given all the grain each day they would consume in about 10 minutes and they were given all the alfalfa hay they would eat. Water and a phenothiazine-salt mixture was provided. The grain consisted of a barley and oats mixture with the barley comprising about 80 percent of the grain ration. The animals were fed once a day.

¹ Approved for publication as technical paper 913 by the Director of Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station.

² Corvallis, Oregon.