Milk yield and composition of Chios and Farafra sheep under subtropical Egyptian conditions [electronic resource].

Includes references.

Means of 176 ewes (135 Farafra and 40 Chios) daily milk yield (DMY), milk yield pre-weaning (MBW), milk yield post-weaning (MAW), total milk yield (TMY) and lactation length (LL)for Chios ewes were 0.703,49.9,16.8,66.7 kg in 96 days, while for Farafra ewes mean were 0.675,46.0, 13.4,59.4 kg in 88 days, respectively. Breed differences were significant (P< 0.01) in TMY and LL. Ewes rearing twin lambs produced significantly (P< 0.01) more milk than those rearing single lambs. Ewes lambing in the spring had greater milk yield compared to ewes lambinf5. in summer and autumn. Ewes> 4 ≤ 5 years of age showed relatively higher milk yield than younger or older ones. Fat% of 36 ewes (/8 Farafra and 18 Chios) averaged 6.17 for Chios which was significantly (P<O.OI) higher than 5.59%for Farafra. Also, Chios had slightly higher TS% than Farafra (/6.04% vs. 15.59%), respectively. Protein content for Chios and Farafra milk differed significantly (P< 0.01) and averaged 5.62% and 5.31%, respectively. Chios ewes had higher milk energy (4.59 MJ/kg) than Farafra (4.34 MJ/kg). The autumn lambing ewes had a significantly higher fat%. TS% and milk energy (MJ/kg) than either summer or spring lambing season.

Summary in Arabic.

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