Reproductive and productive performance of Doyogena sheep managed under a community-based breeding program in Ethiopia

The objective of this study was to evaluate growth and reproductive performance of Doyogena sheep in Ethiopia. Records used in the study were collected from (2013 to 2018). For this study, 2990 records of selected animals for economically important growth, and reproductive traits were considered. Studied traits were birth weight (BWT), 3-month weight (WWT), 6-month weight (SMWT), daily gain from birth to weaning (ADG0-3), daily gains from weaning to 6-month(ADG3-6), daily gain from birth to 6-month age (ADG0-6), litter size (LS), lambing interval (LI), age at first lambing (AFL) and annual reproductive rate (ARR). The data were analyzed using general linear models of SAS program. The overall least-squares means (LSM± SE) for BWT, WWT, and SMWT were 3.05±0.02; 14.8±2.49, and 22.8±0.22 kg respectively. The overall LSM±SE for reproductive performance: LS, LI, ARR, and AFL were 1.56±0.02 lambs, 281.22 ± 8.8 days, 2.16±0.06 lambs, and 437.43±31 days, respectively. The poor rainy season had heavier WWT (14.44 kg) than the main rainy (13.95 kg) and dry seasons (14.12 kg). Single-born lambs had higher BWT and WWT. The BWT (3.13 kg), WWT (14.84 kg), and SMWT (23.22 kg) of male lamb had higher than female BWT (2.88 kg), WWT (13.50, kg), and SMWT (20.59 kg). Parity six and parity seven lambed ewes had larger litter sizes. The lambing interval of ewes was slightly influenced by ewe parities and the first parity ewes lambed was the longer lambing interval. Different fixed effects influenced both reproductive and growth performances and need to be considered during the selection program. Phenotypic performance for most of the studied traits has shown promising results. Thus, continuation of selection is therefore recommended for bringing further improvement in the performance of Doyogena sheep.