Characters of economic importance in Welsh Mountain sheep

Abstract

1. The influence of seasonal, maternal and genetic variation on body weight and fleece characters of Welsh Mountain sheep is reported.2. Fertility and rearing ability of ewes improved from first to third lamb crop.3. Male lambs were on average 0·4 lb. heavier at birth than females. Birth weight increased with number of pregnancies of the dam.4. Early growth of the lamb between birth and marking (24 days old) used partly as a measure of milk production of the ewe, was greater in males than in females. Lambs born to older ewes made the greatest gains over this period, although the trend was not significant.5. Weaning weight of the lamb was affected by the dam's weight at tupping, the number of preceeding pregnancies, her milk yield and also by the season in which the lamb was born. Despite these effects weaning weight proved a good guide to the weight (at subsequent matings) at 1½ and 2½ years old.Heritability by intra-sire parent-offspring regression was 0·51±0·07 (P<0·001) and repeatability was 0·43 (P<0·001).6. Fleece weight was not affected by season or age of ewe. However, the heaviest lambs at weaning tended to have heaviest fleeces the following year.Heritability by intra-sire daughter-dam comparison was 0·58±0·11 (P<0·001) and repeatability was 0·46 (P<0·001).7. Staple length measured on the mid-side of the animal had a repeatability between years of 0·56 (P<0·001) while heritability by daughter-dam regression was 0·38±0·ll (P<0·001).8. Fourteen Welsh Mountain rams were progeny tested. Nine of the rams were purchased at local sales and 5 were home bred. They were not selected for the traits examined.No statistically significant differences were obtained between sire progeny groups for weaning weight and fleece weight.