Experiment   Treatment groups Short-term increase in LH within 4h E2 Surge (>2.0 pg/mL between 4 and 52h) LH Surge (between 4 and 52h) Increased P4 (>0.5 ng/mL within 7 days) Short Luteal Phase   Oestrus   One Control (n=14) 10 3 2 6 3 1a Supplemented (n=14) 10 4 3 5 3 4b   Two   Control Low BCS (n=15) 6a 2a 1a 1a 1a,b 0a Med BCS (n=15) 13b 7a 5a 6b 1a,b 6b   Supplemented Low BCS (n=15) 15b 3b 3a 6a,b 4a 1a Med BCS (n=15) 15b 6a 4a 5b 0b 5b

Table 1: The number of ewes responding to the “ram effect” in control ewes and in ewes supplemented with 500g of maize/soya per day for five days immediately before the introduction of rams. Experiment two involved the additional factor of body condition score (BCS) at two levels; low (median BCS 1.75) and medium (median BCS 2.25). Within columns and within experiments values with different superscripts are significantly different (P<0.05)