Fertility of some Ethiopian breeds of rams
1996
Yohanes Gojam | Yibrah Yaekob (IAR, Addis Abeba (Ethiopia))
A study was carried out to identify the fertility level of three Ethiopian breeds of rams, Adal, black-head Somali and Horro, in a single sire controlled mating group of 15-28 ewes per mating group for a period of 14 years on 246 rams. Ram fertility was acceptable and varied significantly (p less than 0.001) between breeds and years. The relationship between age and weight at mating was not significant (p greater than 0.5). The number of ewes joined open (NEJ) was significant (p less than 0.1). Adal breed rams had superior fertility over Black-head Somali and Horro. It was not possible to identify if other environmental factors (feed, ram to ewe ratio, etc.,) might have contributed to the differences. The wide range in the fertility level (70.8 percent to 93.8 percent) suggests the possibility to improve more fertility through management.
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