Seasonal variations in the reproductive activty of female awassi sheep in iraq

In an attempt to study the seasonel variations in .the reproductive activity of the female 44wassi sheep at:~l’lo different breeding seasons (winter 8.!_1d spring), ~~ing a period of one year data were collected from.x.:>eri[iJ::m~al work which comprised sixty-four mature ewes, ~nd in a field work recording data for 2711 ewes.shown and ge:’lerally it ranged between 15 and 19 days. ~he average length of the estrous cycles in winter andspring respec-cively. The variation in. the lCllgth of thees-trous cycle between tbe breedingseasons was not significant.The d urati on of estrus ranged fro!:l 25 to .35 hours during Ivinter and from 2.3 to .34 hours dm-’ing spring, and it WeS in the range 0:;:- 28 to 32ho uz-s in 85 • .30% of the total Observations c~uring wLlter,and in the range of 2’+ to 30 hours in 86 .