Cause of wear in sheeps' teeth

Abstract

IN New Zealand the problem of wear in sheep's teeth is acute on some pastures, and as a result of detailed investigations, Barnicoat1 suggested that wear is due to the abrasive action of the fibre in herbage although he could not correlate the amount of fibre in herbage with the extent of wear. While Barnicoat (p. 586) found no evidence to justify further studies on the mineral content of herbage we, on the other hand, believe that such studies may provide the clue that leads to an understanding of wear. © 1959 Nature Publishing Group.