Original scientific paper
INFLUENCE OF NON-GENETIC FACTORS ON THE ANNUAL MILK PRODUCTION OF OVCHEPOLIAN SHEEP IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA
Nikola Pacinovski
orcid.org/0000-0002-5431-0181
; Institute of Animal Science, Skopje, Macedonia
Goce Cilev
; Veterinary Faculty, Bitola, Macedonia
Elena Eftimova
; Institute of Animal Science, Skopje, Macedonia
A. Pacinovski
; Faculty of Biotechnical Sciences, University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bitola, Macedonia
Abstract
During four production years (2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005), several production traits were tested in a total of 180 Ovchepolian sheep. The age of the sheep was from first to the seventh lactation and 4319 individual lactation tests were performed. Besides the basic statistics, the data were analyzed by multi trait fixed model. The influence of certain factors was studied with the F-test, and the differences between the LS – estimates of every effect were determined with the T-test. The analyses were performed by the set of programs SPSS. The factors year and lactation had a highly significant influence (P<0.01) on the annual milk production traits. The month of lambing manifested a highly significant influence (P<0.01) on several traits (lactation and commercial milk, the lactation length), and (P<0.05) on the milk suckled by the lambs. However this factor did not have any influence on the suckling period length (P>0.05). Regarding the four traits, the fertility did not manifest any influence (P>0.05). The average annual milk production of tested sheep population for the four years was 53±0.247 L, while the amount of suckled milk was on average 20±0.130 L. The maximum annual milk production in this population was recorded in 2003 (109.75 L). The production of commercial milk was on average 33±0.217 L, while the average length of the suckling period was 57±0.377 days. The lactation period length for these sheep was on average 180±0.31 days for the four testing years.
Keywords
Ovchepolian sheep; production traits; factors influence; year; lactation; lambing month; fertility
Hrčak ID:
102431
URI
Publication date:
17.5.2013.
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