Tr. J. of Veterinary and Animal Sciences

Abstract: Performance data on growth of lambs were collectted for two years from 23 village flocks in Central Anatolia. The results from the Akkaraman and Merino breeds and their crosses were analyzed by the least-squares method. The overall means for birth weight, pre-weaning daily gain, weaning weight and post-weaning growth rate were 3.74 kg, 188.4 gram, 16.4 kg and 83.6 gram, respectively. The performance was lower than reported for the same breeds from institutional flocks in Türkiye. Systematic effects of flock, season of birth, type of birth, sex and weight of dam were significant (p<0.01) for all pre-weaning growth traits. The effects of age of dam and year of birth were significant for same of the traits. The results indicate possibilities for improving the growth performance of village flocks by changing the flock management and breeding. The study also shows that even under the best environmental conditions of the area pure Merino sheep are not advantageous