Border Leicester and Finnsheep Crosses. II. Productivity of F1 Ewes1

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Abstract
Production data on 285 lambings of crossbred ewes were collected at the Roman L. Hruska US Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, Nebraska, and used to compare Finnsheep (Finn)- and Border Leicester (BL)-sired ewes in matings with Suffolk sires. Matings were carried out in 1973, 1974 and 1975, and lambs were born in 1974, 1975 and 1976. Lambs from BL-sired ewes were (.6 kg) heavier at birth than lambs from Finn-sired ewes, and had superior vigor scores and less lambing difficulty, but were not significantly better in survival, pre-weaning gain or weaning weight. When adjusted for their lower rate of twinning, BL-sired lambs were only .3 kg heavier than Finn-sired lambs in birth weight, but 14% poorer in survival to weaning and no better in lambing difficulty, lamb vigor or weaning weight. BL-sired ewes were significantly below Finn-sired ewes in number of lambs born (-.39), number alive at birth (-.41), number alive at 28 days (-.28) and number alive at weaning (-.29), as well as in total weight of lambs born (-.4 kg) and weaned (-3.6 kg) per ewe lambing. Fertility was similar for BL- and Finn-sired ewes (68%). BL-sired ewes were only 1.3 kg heavier than Finn-sired ewes but produced .3 kg heavier clean fleeces and 1.7 cm longer stapled wool and 2.6 /µm coarser fibers. Copyright © 1981. American Society of Animal Science. Copyright 1981 by American Society of Animal Science.

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