Border Leicester and Finnsheep Crosses. II. Productivity of F1 Ewes1

Abstract

Production data on 285 lambings of crossbred ewes were collected at the Roman L. Hruska US Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, Nebraska, and used to compare Finnsheep (Finn)- and Border Leicester (BL)-sired ewes in matings with Suffolk sires. Matings were carried out in 1973, 1974 and 1975, and lambs were born in 1974, 1975 and 1976. Lambs from BL-sired ewes were (.6 kg) heavier at birth than lambs from Finn-sired ewes, and had superior vigor scores and less lambing difficulty, but were not significantly better in survival, pre-weaning gain or weaning weight. When adjusted for their lower rate of twinning, BL-sired lambs were only .3 kg heavier than Finn-sired lambs in birth weight, but 14% poorer in survival to weaning and no better in lambing difficulty, lamb vigor or weaning weight. BL-sired ewes were significantly below Finn-sired ewes in number of lambs born (-.39), number alive at birth (-.41), number alive at 28 days (-.28) and number alive at weaning (-.29), as well as in total weight of lambs born (-.4 kg) and weaned (-3.6 kg) per ewe lambing. Fertility was similar for BL- and Finn-sired ewes (68%). BL-sired ewes were only 1.3 kg heavier than Finn-sired ewes but produced .3 kg heavier clean fleeces and 1.7 cm longer stapled wool and 2.6 /µm coarser fibers.