Reproductive Performance of Suffolk Crossbred Lambs

Mating the local Ossimi sheep with the British Suffolk breed was carried out to improve the local sheep in Egypt. This was begun by two Suffolk rams imported by the ministry of Agriculture, in 1940. The preliminary results of this attempt were encouraging ( Sidky, 1948 ). Another ten Suffolk rams and small flock of ewes were imported in 1947, for producing rams to be used for the same purpose. An experimental work was deigned to backcross the Suffolk crossbred flock of high Suffolk grades to the local Ossimi sheep aiming to restore back better heterotic effect in the lower Suffolk grades. The present work investigated the growth and repoductive development of the ewe lambs from the high Suffolk grades (70-90%) and that which resulted from backcrossing with the ossimi (35-45% suffolk). the effect of level of feeding was also studied.