The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of partial replacement of wheat hay with sun-dried (SOC) or acid-treated SOC (ASOC) olive cake on nutrient intake and performance of Awassi lambs. An additional objective was to study the effects of acid treatment of olive cake (OC) on its chemical composition and nutritive value. On DM basis, sun-drying of OC did not dramatically affec...

The study was conducted to detect haptoglobin in seminal plasma (SP-Hp) of Awassi rams and the effect of the breeding season on its concentration, along with determining the correlation with its concentration in serum (S-Hp) and main semen variables. Pre-warmed artificial vagina was used to collect semen samples biweekly from five Awassi rams. Semen samples were evaluated for volume, concentrat...

this experiment was carried out to compare the effects of treated and untreated wheat straw with pleurotus florida on ewe feed intake, nutrient digestibility, and ewe body condition score (bcs) after parturition. thirty kermani ewes with an average weight of 48 ± 3.05 kg and about four years old were used in this experiment. synchronization of estrus in sheep has been achieved with the use of i...

The objective of this study was to investigate the use of four different mathematical functions (Wood, Inverse Polynomial, Quadratic and Cubic models) for describing the lactation curve of unimproved Awassi ewes. Data were collected from 136 ewes from the same flock raised on the State Farm of Gözlü in the Konya Province of Turkey. The differences in estimated total milk yields between the mode...

Effects of breed and sward surface height on ewe liveweight and body condition changes and on lamb liveweight gains during grazing in the spring and autumn were studied. The output per hectare in each season was also calculated. A total of 112 Gallega ewes (35Æ6 kg live weight) and 204 Latxa ewes (47Æ5 kg live weight) with their lambs were used during the spring (March–June) to study the effect...

Reproductive performance and body weights of four and five-year old crossbred ewes representing five combinations of Finnsheep (F), Dorset (D) and Rambouillet (R) breeding were evaluated when lambing in the summer Oune-July, 1976). The five breed combinations represented were 1f2D, 1f2R; %D, %R; %F, 1f2D, %R; %F, %D, 1f2Rand %F, 3f4R. Breeding effectiveness of purebred and crossbred rams of Ham...

Sheep production industries face the challenge of increasing farm and profit while reducing environmental impacts. Genetic selection using multi-trait breeding indices can be used to improve flock productivity, profitability, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensities (kg CO2-eq /kg product), however validation improved performance animals ranked higher on at a level is required. Phenotypic dat...

In practical production, almost all rams and about 50% of ewes are used to fatten. Researchers have proved that ewe ovariectomy could improve the productivity significantly, but the specific molecular mechanism is still unknown. In this study, five independent cDNA libraries (three and two from ovariectomized and normal ewe longissimus dorsi samples, respectively) were constructed to thoroughly...

In Exp. 1, 39 ewe lambs (initial BW 29 +/- .1 kg) were used in a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement with two breeds (Polypay and Targhee) and two diets (high-forage and high-grain) to examine the effects of restricting intake of a high-grain diet on onset of puberty and lamb performance. The experimental diets were fed from 13 to 40 wk of age. The high-forage diet was composed of 80% alfalfa cubes and...

The experiment measured lamb responses to supplementation of the pregnant ewe diet with vitamin E above requirement. Crossbred ewes were mated with either Suffolk or Texel rams. Twin-bearing ewes were randomly allocated (approximately 21 months of age at allocation) to one of four treatment groups (20 ewes per group, 10 mated with Suffolk and 10 with Texel rams). Treatments imposed were 50, 100...