Reproductive Performance of Harnali Sheep

The 22 years (1992–2013) data pertaining to reproductive traits of 862 Harnali sheep developed by inter se mating of Corriedale and Russian Merino with Nali maintained at Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, were analysed. The overall least squares means for age at first lambing (AFL), weight at lambing (WL) and average lambing interval (ALI) were 707.05±2.07 days, 26.91±0.10 kg and 402.85±2.40 days, respectively. The effects of year of birth and dam's weight at lambing were significant (P<0.01) for all the traits except the effect of year on ALI. No definite trend was observed over the years for the means of reproductive traits. Heritability estimates for AFI, WL and ALI traits were low and recorded as 0.02±0.05, 0.05±0.06 and 0.01±0.05 respectively. Genetic correlation of ALI with WL was negative. Phenotypic correlations of AFL with WL and ALI were positive and significant. Low estimates of heritability of reproduction traits indicate that phenotypic selection based on these traits cannot result in considerable genetic improvement.