AN EVALUATION OF PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY OF INDIGENOUS SHEEP BREEDS IN BALOCHISTAN, PAKISTAN

In the present study four native sheep breeds of Balochistan such as Balochi, Bivirigh, Harnai and Rakhshani production data of 410 sheep were used. The data were collected from multi purpose sheep research station Yetabad (under government control). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of native sheep breeds for their production efficiency. This study investigated the effect of ewe age, lambing month, sex of lamb and breed on the birth weight, weaning weight, weight gain and survival of lambs to weaning. The effect of ewe age differences was not significant, the 4 year old ewes produced slightly heavier birth weight lambs, the differences were not significant (P>0.05), 5 year age group were observed best in term of weaning weight and weight gain to weaning weight. The lambing month has significantly influence the weaning weight and weight gain to weaning (P= <0.001). The effect of lamb sex showed a significant effect, males were heavier than females (P=< 0.001). The effect of breed showed significant differences (P= <0.001) for birth weight in the Balochi breed and weaning weight and weight gain to weaning weight in Bivirigh (P= <0.001).