EFFECT OF BREED, BODY CONDITION SCORE AND AGE ON SOME ECONOMIC TRAITS OF LOCAL FLOCKS EWES

Abstract

This study aimed to estimate the effect of breed, Body Condition Score (BCS) and age on some economic traitsof local flock’s ewes. The ewes studied in the present investigation represent three local breeds (53 karadi, 44 Awassi and 47 Mamesh) bred in Erbil plain during the period from January/ 2009 to June /2010.The results showed a highly significant breed effect (p <0.01) on all the studied traits. Mamesh ewes surpassed both Karadi and Awassi ewes in milk yield (102.269, 88.254 and 92.684 kg), respectively, besides the lambs of the same breed were superior in birth weight (4.885kg) and weaning weight (27.612kg) compared with karadi and Awassi lambs. Greasy fleece weights of the Karadi, Awassi and Mamesh ewes were 2.220, 1.829 and 2.585kg respectively. The superiority of Mamesh ewes were found to be highly significant (p <0.01). The study also revealed that the (BCS) exerts an important effect on milk yield, greasy fleece weight and birth weight. Ewes with (BCS) 4 showed a higher milk yield (102.883kg) as comparing with ewes having (BCS) 3(95.083kg) and that having (BCS) 2 (86.391kg) .Correlation coefficient highly significant (p <0.01) between birth weight and milk yield was 0.32and between birth weight and weaning weight was 0.38and between ewes body weight and greasy fleece weight was 0.43.