Udder and teat morphology measurements were taken at approximately 7.5 hr after the a.m. milking for 131 East Friesian (EF) crossbred ewes at an average of 71 d in lactation. Additionally, milking time was recorded for each ewe during two evening and morning milkings. Average daily milk production, milking time, percentage of milk fat, percentage of milk protein, and somatic cell count were 2 L...

A study was conducted to evaluate relative resistance of Dorper crossbred (DO), Katahdin (KA), St. Croix (SC), and Hampshire (HA) ewes to natural and experimental gastro-intestinal (GI) nematode infection over a 20-month period. The objective of Experiment 1 was to evaluate breeds for resistance to infection acquired naturally from mixed grass pastures. In Year 1 (May-December 2000) de-worming ...

Ovulation rate (OR) and litter size (LS) were recorded in local hair sheep of Martinique and in local x Lacaune-viande crossbreeds, in order to assess prenatal losses. Local hair sheep LS and OR were 1.91 and 2.41, respectively. Prenatal losses increased with OR, from 0.22 (OR = 2) up to 1.50 (OR > 3). The ewes (69.7%) with LS = 1 had actually lost at least one ovum, against 25.9% of the ewes w...

introduction as pregnancy progresses, nutrient requirements of fetus and thereby ewe increases and some changes in the levels of blood metabolites including glucose, cholesterol and total protein may occur. during gestation, maternal tissues contribute to supplying energy that required for fetus resulting in changes of ewe blood metabolites; however other factors such as breed, age, feeding typ...

Broad diversity among breeds of sheep is a precious industry resource. This breed diversity can be managed to increase performance and profit through use of crossbred ewes mated to rams of a terminal sire breed. Differences among breeds in performance for survival, growth, carcass, wool, and reproductive traits are due to the unique genetic history associated with each breed. Beneficial genetic...

Three-hour milk production measurements determined by machine milking at 3-d intervals throughout a 63-d lactation period were used to describe lactation curves for crossbred ewes lambing at 1 and 2 yr of age and rearing single and twin lambs. Age of ewe, type of rearing, and day of lactation affected (P < 0.05) milk production. Over the 63-d lactation, average daily milk production was 2.56 an...

Forty-eight crossbred ewes were subjected to heat stress of short or long duration during the last third of gestation in a completely randomized design to determine the effects of maternal heat stress on lamb birth weight, lamb conformation and subsequent preweaning growth rate. Ewe treatments were spring range pasture, confinement on slotted floors in a heated room maintained between 28 to 38 ...

Two-hundred-fifty-six crossbred and Targhee ewes which lambed in February and March were randomly assigned to a 38or 73-day postpartum weaning group and within weaning group to a control, an 8or a 16-day progestogen treatment. Treatment was an intravaginal progestogen pessary for 7 days after weaning or for 15 days beginning 8 days before weaning with a 10 mg injection of progesterone on the da...

Crossbreeding of four Iranian fat-tailed sheep breeds, namely Kurdi (K), Chaal (C), Afshari (A) and Sanjabi (S) was carried out to determine the ram breed effects on productivity of Kurdi fat-tailed ewes (K) under extensive production system. A total of 475 Kurdi ewes were mated to 24 rams from the above four breeds resulting in 454 lambs. Ram breed had a significant influence on early growth t...

Merino and crossbred ewes were used to evaluate whether previously ram exposure in late winter could improve the response to further progestagen oestrus synchronization treatment in terms of luteal function and fertilization rate. We used 56 adult Merino and crossbred ewes randomly allocated in two groups, control (C; n= 27) and Male Effect (ME; n= 29), which had been isolated from rams for at ...