Sheep Research Station, Sher-e- Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Srinagar-190 006, Jammu and Kashmir
*E-mail address: hilal.ndri@gmail.com
The present study was carried out to study the factors influencing birth weight and dam weight of Polled Dorset and crossbred sheep. Period and parity had significant effect (P< 0.05) on birth weight and dam weight in both the breeds. Birth weight showed decreasing trend in case of Polled Dorset whereas in case of crossbred sheep birth weight decreased after second period. Lambs born to first-parity ewes were significantly (P<0.05) lighter at birth than lambs of older ewes in both the breeds. Dam weight showed decreasing trend in periods and increasing trend with parity in both the breeds. Correlation of dam weight with lamb weight was positive and highly significant (P<0.01) in both the breeds. Males were heavier than females in crossbred but females were significantly (P<0.05) heavier in Polled Dorset sheep. The trends in dam weight and lamb weight clearly indicates the requirement of managemental strategies for improving dam weight to augment higher birth weight and performance of lambs.
Birth weight, Crossbred, Dam weight, Parity, Polled Dorset
