Productive and reproductive efficiency of Malpura and prolific Garole ewes and their crosses in semi -arid region

Abstract

Data on productive and reproductive efficiency of Malpura (M), prolific Garole (6) and crosses of GarolexMalpura (GM) ewes were used to study the comparative ewe's reproductive efficiency of M, G and GM. The GM sheep weaned 32.94% more lamb weight over G and i1.09% more over M. At 6 months of age the corresponding figures were 65.83 and 14.18%, respectively. The ewe productivity efficiency (EPE) measured in terms of total weight of lambs produced per kg of ewe body weight per year (WLPKEW) was 0.104,0.115 and 0.118 in G, M and GM at bW, 0.378,0.460 and 0.540 at 3 month, 0.434, 0.702 and 0.835 at 6 month and 0.528, 0.897 and 1.177 at 12 month of age, respectively. The increase of WLPKEW in GM over M averaged 2.61% at birth to 31.22% at 12 month of age. The genetic groups and year significantly affected EPE from weaning to 12 month of age whereas the difference due to parity was significant only at birth. The fecundity was 1.49, 0.96 and 1.47 in G, M and GM respectively. The weaning rate (WR) of the corresponding groups averaged 0.89, 0.93 and 1.27 and rearing ability (RA) averaged 128.46, 101.22 and 140.97%, respectively. The increase in GM over Malpura was 53.13 and 36.56%, respectively, for fecundity and WR. The average fertility (F) and apparent fertility (AF) in GM was better than G and M ewes while ewes reproductive performance (ERP) of G and GM ewes was similar. The results revealed that GM sheep showed increased EPE, WR, ERP and fecundity as compared to native M sheep.