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Selection for carcass and maternal traits: effects on lambing difficulties in Scottish Blackface hill ewes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2017

N R Lambe ,
A Saurat ,
J Conington ,
S C Bishop  and
G Simm
N R Lambe*
Affiliation:
SAC, Edinburgh, UK
A Saurat
Affiliation:
SAC, Edinburgh, UK
J Conington
Affiliation:
SAC, Edinburgh, UK
S C Bishop
Affiliation:
Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, UK
G Simm
Affiliation:
SAC, Edinburgh, UK
*
Email: [email protected]
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Extract

The incidence of lambing difficulties is known to be affected by factors such as sex, birth rank (single versus multiple), sire breed and dam breed of the lamb (e.g. Smith et al, 1977). Some of these difficulties are thought to be largely due to the link with lamb birth weight (e.g. heavier in males and singles, leading to increased dystocia). Age and parity of the ewe also influence dystocia, as does body condition score pre-lambing (Carson et al. 2001). The aim of this study was to examine whether selection of hill sheep using a breeding index designed to improve both carcass and maternal traits affects the incidence of lambing difficulties.

Type
Theatre presentations
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 2006 , March 2006 , pp. 39
Copyright
Copyright © The American Society of International Law 2016

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References

Carson, A.F., Irwin, D., Kilpatrick, D.J. 2001. Effects of genotype and dietary forage to concentrate ratio during the finishing period on carcass characteristics and meat quality of lambs from hill sheep systems. Journal of Agricultural Science. 137: 221-233 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conington, J., Bishop, S.C., Lambe, N.R., Bünger, L., Simm, G. 2005. Testing new selection indices for sustainable hill sheep production - lamb growth and carcass traits. Submitted to Animal Science Google Scholar
Lane, P.W., Payne, R.W. 1996. GENSTAT for Windows: An Introductory Course. ed 2, Lawes Agricultural Trust Google Scholar
Smith, G.M. 1977. Factors affecting birth weight, dystocia and preweaning survival in sheep. Journal of Animal Science. 44: 745-753 Google Scholar