Reproductive Performance of Balochi Sheep in Different Ecological Zones of Balochistan, Pakistan

The data on reproductive performance of Balochi sheep (n=150) kept at three Government sheep farms in Balochistan, Quetta (KSBFM) (n=50), Loralai (SRCY) (n=50) and Usta Mohammad (UMSF) (n=50), under semi-intensive management system, were analyzed. General linear model was used for analyzing the data. The fixed effects in the model included location of flock, age, type of birth, sex of lamb and their interactions. The overall findings of reproductive traits such as fertility, prolificacy, single lambing, twinning rate, lambs born alive and sex ratio (male: female) were 92.67, 101.33, 89.86, 10.14, 96.33% and 50.33:49.67, respectively. The highest value for twinning rate was recorded in UMSF (13.04%) and the lowest in KSBFM (6.52%). All traits were significantly different (P 0.05) from each other except lambs born alive and season of birth were non significant (P 0.05) between flocks. The overall results revealed that age of dam, age at first service (AFS), service period (SP), age at first lambing (AFL) and lambing interval (LI) were 1078±2.2, 579.61±0.6, 206.25±0.2, 731.67±0.3 and 256.60±0.3 days, respectively. The results of ANOVA showed that locations had significant effect (P 0.05) on AFS and SP; however lambing interval and age at first lambing were not affected. Age of ewe, type of birth, sex of lamb(s) born and interaction between these factors did not influence the traits significantly. It was concluded that reproductive performance of Balochi sheep was modest so it is vital to improve management, nutritional and breeding practices at the farm.