Distribution of Birth within a Day of Akkaraman and Awassi Sheep

In this research, the birth records obtained from 160 head Akkaraman and 95 head Awassi sheep in private sector in Konya province were used as a data set. The day was divided into 4 equal periods to evaluate the distribution within the day, which were 23:01-05:00 = 1, 05:01-11:00 = 2, 11:01-17:00 = 3 and 17:01- 23:00 = 4. The lamb number and rate of time of birth in ewes giving birth for the first, second, third and fourth time were 67, 38, 26 and 29 (41.88%, 23.75%, 16.25% and 18.13%), respectively, for Akkaraman and 37, 25, 21 and 12 (38.95%, 26.32%, 22.11% and 12.63%), respectively, for Awassi. The number and rate of male and female lambs for the same breed were estimated as 92 male and 68 female (57.50% and 42.50%), respectively, for Akkaraman, and 40 male and 55 female (42.11% and 57.89%), respectively, for Awassi. In the Akkaraman breed, in terms of birth number of ewes in the herd, the highest rate of 36.25% (58 ewes) was observed from ewes giving birth third. This rate for the Awassi breed was found to be 23.16% (22 ewes) from ewes giving birth sixth and above. The rate of male and female lambs born between 23:01-05:00 was 38.04% and 47.06%, respectively, for the Akkaraman breed. These rates for the Awassi breed were 45.00% and 34.55% for male and female lambs, respectively, between 23:01-05:00 hours. The distribution in different times of birth according to the sex of lambs in Akkaraman and Awassi sheep breed, and the distribution of different birth times according to the birth orders in Akkaraman sheep breed were found to be non-significant (P > 0.05). However, the distribution in different times of birth according to the birth orders in Awassi sheep breed was found to be significant (P < 0.01).