Effect of Plane of Nutrition during Late Pregnancy and Early Lactation on Milk Production and Lambs Growth of Hamadani Ewes

An experiment was conducted at the sheep Farm of Agric. College, Univ. of Salahaddin-Erbil to determine the effect of feeding four levels of concentrate and ad libitum wheat straw on ewes body weight changes, milk yield and their lambs growth from birth until weaning (90 days). Forty-four Hamadani ewes between 3 and 5 years of age were assigned at two months before lambing into four dietary groups of equal size. The first ewes group was fed crushed black barley diet at 500 g/ewe/day (traditional feeding), whereas ewes of the second, third and fourth groups were fed concentrate diet at 500, 750 and 1000 g/ewe/day, respectively. The study revealed that high plane feeding (1000g/ewe/day) resulted in a significant (P≤ 0.05) increase in ewes live weight gain during the last period of pregnancy and also milk yield during the suckling period. Type of birth and rearing had a significant (P≤ 0.05) effect on milk production. In addition, type of birth had a significant (P≤ 0.05) effect on all studied lambs weight traits. Also, sex of lamb had a significant (P≤ 0.05) effect on the weight of lambs only at birth