PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF THE FLORINA (PELAGONIA) SHEEP FOR LAMB PRODUCTION AND GROWTH

The Florina breed of sheep is one of the Greek breeds which are consid ered of being in danger because of uncontrolled crosses with other loc al or imported breeds. It used to be farmed in the poor areas of the h ills and mountains of West Macedonia, Greece. Not a high milk producin g breed, its advantages seem to be resistance to diseases, average lit ter size and lower lamb mortality rates. Lambing and lamb weaning reco rds collected during the period 1976-1977 to 1994-1995 were used to es timate the lamb production characteristics of the breed. The records w ere also analysed using Harvey's mixed model least squares and maximum likelihood computer program to estimate the effect of year, month of birth, dam's age and lactation number, type of lambing, sex and intera ction between type of lambing and sex on birth weight, weaning weight and daily gain to weaning. Overall fertility rate was 84.4, prolificac y rates were 1.15 and 1.36, based on the number of ewes mated and numb er of ewes lambing, respectively, and the lamb survival rates to the a ge of slaughter (soon after weaning) 94.5. Year, month of birth and ty pe of lambing were significant (P < 0.001) for birth weight, weaning w eight and daily gain. Sex was significant for birth weight (P) and mor e significant (P < 0.001) for weaning weight and daily gain. The dam's age and lactation number were not significant for any of the characte ristics. The interactions between type of lambing (litter size) and se x were not significant for the weight at birth and significant (P < 0. 01) for the weaning weight and daily gain. Finally, birth weight was v ery significant for the weaning weight and the dairy gain (P < 0.001). The regression coefficients were 1.67 +/- 0.1 kg and 14.95 +/- 2.63 g , respectively.