المستخلص: |
Forty local Barbary ewes belong to “ Maknousa” Project in Fazan area- South Jamahirya were used to study both milk production and it’s composition as well as factors affecting them. The ewes were hand-milked once daily and milk production was estimated at 7-day intervals according to suckling technique. Average milk yield was 39.32 kg during the lactation period of 24 wks. Peak yield occurred at 4 th week. The mean values for Percentages of fat, protein, lactose, ash, dry matter and milk energy were 5.80, 5.20, 5.40, 0.91, 17.33 and 4.19 MJ , respectively. Age of ewe had a significant effect (P < 0.01 or 0.05) on milk yield and both of % fat and % dry matter. On the other hand effect of sex of lambs had not significant effect on all traits studied. The highest value of correlation coefficient was 0.81 between milk yield and lactation length and the lowest value was - 0.82 between milk yield and dry matter. It was concluded that milk yield in Barbary ewes was low, Ewes need to improve genetic source through crossing with dairy breeds as well as improve the management and environmental factors especially nutrition . It’s better for more accurate to determine milk yield as twice daily milking rather than once.
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