A study in the applied the counter season on Merino Sheep

Mehmet ÖRKİZ; Gülen ÜN

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A study in the applied the counter season on Merino Sheep

Mehmet ÖRKİZ ,Gülen ÜN

- This study was carried out at Lalahan Zootechnical Research Institute in 1976 on 72 Merino sheep that were not given lamb on normal lambing season. These sheep were mated at March 10 – 5 April and they have given birth in august. With this experimentation 113.2 % lamb production was obtained in counter season of 1976. Whereas 137.5 % lamb production was obtained from the same sheep at normal mating season of same year (table 1 and 2). The birth weight and the body weight of 30, 60 and 90 day of normal and contre season lambs are shown in table 3.

1. The lamb production, therefor the profit margin would be increased by applying the counter season mating on our Merino.

2. It has been proved by our observation that any raising disease has not seen in the counter season mated sheep in the futures and they have shown normal oestrus cycle.

3. If the counter season lams are fed with nutritions ration and are given good care, they reach an average of 40 kg live weight, there for they become an important meat source, especially during the March-April period when the meat price is usually high.

4. It is taught that the Merino sheep with above characteristics would give birth 3 times in 2 years. Keywords :