Some preliminary observations on factors affecting the temperature at the skin surface of the New Zealand Romney Sheep

Abstract

Skin temperatures at various posItIOns on four sheep have been studied in order to investigate the possibility of relating cutaneous blood flow to certain facets of wool growth. While temperature differences were found to occur between sheep, and between different body positions on an individual sheep, and measurements were influenced by many other factors such as the ambient temperature, diurnal variation, the effects of handling and the insulation of the skin. Since the individual sheep varied in their diurnal trends and handling responses, the confounding influence of these responses should be taken into account in any attempt to correlate skin temperature and wool growth. The skin temperatures of two groups of 20 sheep were also measured under field conditions, and it was found that repeatable measurements could be obtained at the time of day when skin temperatures were the greatest.