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The relationship between live weight of ewe at mating and weight of newborn lamb

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

H. P. Donald  and
W. S. Russell
H. P. Donald
Affiliation:
A.R.C. Animal Breeding Research Organisation, Edinburgh EH9 3JQ
W. S. Russell
Affiliation:
A.R.C. Animal Breeding Research Organisation, Edinburgh EH9 3JQ
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Summary

Regression of litter weight of newborn lambs on the live weight of ewes at mating has been estimated from data on 15 breeds after conversion of group means of ewes and lambs to natural logarithms. Regression coefficients were estimated to be 0·721 for single lambs, 0·741 for twins and 0·773 for triplets. These values are not signi-ficantly different from each other. Data from ewes with single lambs and from ewes with twins are consistent with the hypothesis that litter weight at birth as a proportion of ewe weight at mating tends to dechne as ewe weight rises from small to large breeds. In a breed with ewes averaging 25 kg the expected birth weight of singles is 9·6% and of twins 15·2%, of ewe weight. For a breed with ewes of 100 kg the corresponding weights would be 6·5% and 10·6% of ewe weight. Since the estimated regression coefficient and the coefficient in the expression for metabolic weight (0·730) are alike, the regression equations can be interpreted as showing that single lambs were 22·6% and twin pairs 36·1% of ewes' metabolic weight.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , May 1970 , pp. 273 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1970

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References

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