The Baluchi breed is the most common native breed of Iran adapted to h
arsh environments in the eastern parts of the country. The data used i
n the present study, collected from two research flocks at the Abbasab
ad sheep breeding station in north-east Iran, included 20 534 animals
descended from 363 sires, 5992 darns, 282 maternal grandsires, and 286
5 maternal granddams during the period 1966 to 1989. The traits record
ed were: birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), weight at 6 months (W
6), weight at 12 months (YW), pre-weaning gain (WG), post-weaning gain
(PWG), lamb fleece weight (LFW), ewe fleece weight sheared before fir
st joining (FW1) and adult ewe fleece weight (FW). Genetic parameters,
estimated with restricted maximum likelihood and a two-trait animal m
odel, were similar in the two flocks. Direct heritabilities for the va
rious body weight traits were moderate and varied between 0.13 and 0.3
2, while the maternal heritabilities were low and varied between 0.01
and 0.12. Direct and maternal genetic correlations between WW and weig
hts at later ages were moderate to high (0.59 to 0.96). Direct heritab
ilities of weight gain measures varied between 0.12 and 0.19, while no
significant maternal influence on either of these weight gain measure
s could be detected. The estimates of direct genetic correlation betwe
en WG and PWG were positive and varied between 0.54 and 0.74, while ne
gative maternal genetic correlation (-0.17 on average) between WG and
PWG was detected. For LFW, direct heritability was low and no maternal
heritability could be shown. For FW1, both direct and maternal geneti
c influences were demonstrated (0.07 to 0.26). Direct genetic correlat
ion between LFW and FW1 was very low and close to zero, while maternal
genetic correlation was positive and relatively high (0.72 on average
). The relative contributions to phenotypic variance from variance com
ponents due to common environmental effects ranged from 0.01 to 0.15 f
or all traits. The repeatability of FW was low (0.03 to 0.12).