Ghaidaa Jakish * ⁽¹⁾ ,Abd Al-Hadi Hatabi ⁽¹⁾and Abdel Nasser Al-Omar ⁽²⁾

(1). Animal Production Department، College of Agriculture، University of Aleppo، Aleppo، Syria.

(2). General Authority for Agricultural Scientific Research، The Research Center، Hama، Syria.

(*Corresponding author:  Ghaidaa Jakish. Email: ghaidaa.ja91@gmail.com).

Received: 18/04/2021                                 Accepted: 4/07/2021

Abstract

The study was carried out on the improved Awassi dairy sheep flock،  in the Hama Research Center، that follow to The General Authority for Agricultural Scientific Research، during three productive seasons (2017-2018-2019)، the aim of research was studying  the effect of fathers and some non-genetic factors represented by year، mother’s age، mother’s weight at birth and parity، type of kidding  and the kids kidding on the amount of milk production ، the study included (174) records،  the number of dairy ewes was (87) and the number of fathers (38) in the studied flock. The overall average of milk production for the improved ewes studied during the study period was (228.66 ± 3.71) kg / season، and the fathers had a high significant effect (P <0.001) on the total milk yield (TMY)، and the effect of the ewe birth year was significant (P <0.05) in milk production، where it gave the highest production in (2019) which was (239.9 ± 51) kg / season، and the effect of mother’s age was significant in milk production (p <0.001)، where it gave the highest production at (4) years old (277.28 ± 28) kg / season، while it turns out that the weight of the ewes had an insignificant effect (P> 0.05) on milk production، and the maximum production amount was (251.29 ± 11) kg / season in the weight category more than (60) kg. As for the parity، It had a significant effect (P <0.05) in the total production، and the maximum production reached in the third season (288.96 ± 13) kg / season، as well as، the type of kidding had a significant effect (P> 0.05)، and the production of ewes that gave birth twins lambs exceeded the production of  ewes that gave birth to individual lambs (238.25 ± 33) kg / season. as for kids kidding، its effect was insignificant on total milk production، and the heritability of milk production was (h² = 0.24). We conclude from the study that all the studied genetic factors (fathers) and some non-genetic had a significant effect on the total milk production of improved Awassi ewes، which requires continued work for improving them and developing the conditions of care to raise the level of their productive performance.

Key words: Awassi sheep، milk production، fathers، non-genetic factors.

Full paper in Arabic: pdf