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Repeatability of Prolificacy in Sheep¹

West Virginia University, Morgantown

Abstract

The year-to-year repeatability of number of lambs born and raised was studied in 1571 paired records from ewes in three breeding experiments. The estimated intra-ewe repeatability of number of lambs born was 0.108. Repeatability of number of lambs raised was estimated to be 0.129.

Ewes which failed to lamb dropped an average of 1.25 lambs and raised 0.95 the next year. These values were significantly less (P <.01) than corresponding values for those ewes which had lambed the first year. Ewes bearing single lambs in year 1 dropped an average of 1.50 lambs and raised 1.25 in year 2. Even bearing more than one Iamb in year 1 dropped and raised 1.58 and 1.33 lambs, respectively, in year 2.

Once-barren ewes produced an average of 1.68 lambs per ewe lambing in the next year. In subsequent years, however, they dropped only 1.31 lambs per ewe exposed, 13% less than the flock average (1.50) but greater than the average for 2-year-old ewes (1.23).

¹ Published with the approval of the director of the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station as Scientific Paper No. 917. Departments of Animal Industry and Veterinary Science and of Agricultural Economics.