The aim of this study was to determine determine fertility in Merino sheep under breeding conditions and growth and survival characteristics in lambs. The research was carried out over three years, during which 350 Merinos sheep and 409 Merinos lambs were used. In the study, the lambing rates for the examined fertility characteristics were determined to be 95.7%, 94.2%, and 95.2%, respectively; while the infertility rates were 4.3%, 5.8%, and 4.8%. The percentage of single births was 80.4%, 77.8%, and 74.3%, while the percentage of twin births was 19.6%, 22.2%, and 25.7%. The fecundity and litter sizes, which are parameters for fertility, were calculated as 1.15, 1.15, and 1.20, respectively and 1.20, 1.22, and 1.26, respectively. According to the age group of the sheep, the birth weights of lambs were 3.31 kg, 3.19 kg and 3.38 kg for sheep aged 2–3 years, 4–5 years and 6 years and older, respectively. According to sex and birth type, the lamb birth weights were 3.20 kg for female lambs, 3.45 kg for male lambs, 3.65 kg for single-born lambs, and 2.94 kg for twin-born lambs. The results indicate that both the fertility performance of the flock and the lamb survivability rate are satisfactory under the breeding conditions studied.
Çelebi et al. (Thu,) studied this question.