High lambing rate is an immensely important aspect in sheep breeding as it has direct relevance on ewe productivity and economic returns from sheep rearing. Keeping this in view, Garole, a prolific sheep breed of West Bengal was introduced in the Institute. Tupping percent in Garole sheep was about 92. The overall annual lambing rate on ewe's available and tupped basis was 1.60 and 1.70, respectively. Average litter size at birth was observed as 1.80. The overall distributions of single, twin, triplet and quadruplet lambings were 33.51, 47.94, 17.01 and 1.55 per cent, respectively. The results indicated that twining was more common in Garole than single births despite harsh climatic conditions of hot semiarid region. Results obtained revealed that prolificacy of Garole sheep in semiarid region is comparable to its performance in native tract.
Garole, Lambing rate, Prolificacy, Reproductive performance
