Effect of breed of sire and mating season on the reproductive performance of hairsheep females mated to rams of meat-type breeds

This study was conducted in a tropical semi-arid region and involved the establishment of three mating seasons to evaluate the reproductive performance of a hairsheep flock mated to rams from the following breeds: Hampshire Down, Ile-de-France, Suffolk, Texel and Santa Ines hairsheep. Irrespective of season of mating, lambing and fertility rates were high, ranging respectively from 85.9% to 98.6% and from 101.0% to 105.9%. Although fertility of rams had been taken as high, ewes mated to the Suffolk stud ram required more services per conception and showed the smallest lambing rate as compared to the ewes lambed from other breeds of ram. Feeding supplementation of breeding animals associated with shearing and shading for males guaranteed the reproductive performances all year round.