The Effect of Some Environmental Factors on Birth Weight in Anatolian Merino Sheep

In this study, the data of 1510 lambs born in a private sheep farm in Eregli district of Konya in 2018-2019 were evaluated. Birth type, birth times, birth weight and lamb sex were investigated in this study. 892 of the lambs were born in 2018 and 618 of them were born in 2019. A total of 1510 lambs were born. 699 of them were born as single, 761 of them as twins and 50 of them as triplets. The total number of sheep was 1096. 681 of the lambs were male and 829 were female. Of the environmental factors affecting birth weight, while the effect of the year was statistically insignificant (p <0.05), the effect of season, type of birth and sex was significant (p <0.01). Lambs born in spring have more live weight than those born in other seasons. The live weight of male lambs was higher than that of females, however the weight of single born lambs was higher than that of twins and triplets.