Sheep - AgRIS

16. Sheep Records
It is essential to maintain the necessary records at an organised sheep farm to know about
inputs and outputs. This will help in working out economy of sheep production per unit of area.
The recording system is required to be simple, accurate capable of collecting the required
information and finally kept upto date. The data collected should not be kept but should be used
for proper analysis. In sheep growth rate, feed conversion, wool quality, dressing percentage
are highly heritable characters. Prolificacy, milking capacity and fleece weight are characters of
low heretability. More profits can be obtained if more attention is paid to characters of high
heretability. Having decided his breeding prograrnme, a farmer must then choose his parent
stock.
Good record should identify the offspring with the parents. They should also give date of
birth, sex and final disposal of individual. This information together with desirable
confirmation is the basis upon which selection for flock improvement should be rnade.
There should be a system for ear marking, tattooing and or tagging. In case of short ear
breeds, tattooing on inside of thighs or tails be practiced. A combination of tattooing and
tagging is desirable.
Following data/ observations are of great help at an organised farm:
i) Livestock inventory
This register gives information about the individual identification, parentage and date and
reason for sale or culling.
ii) Wool weight and quality
Wool evaluation should be limited to greasy fleece weight of each clip, staple length at a
particular site, average fiber diameter, medullation percentage, visual assessment of fineness
and making careful examination of undesirable characters such as black fibers or coarse fibers.
iii) Growth records
Body weights at birth 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age are important. Birth weight is related
with vigour, survivability and growth rate. Weaning weight is used to measure total lamb
production of an ewe. Six month weight is correlated with market and yearling weight and is
highly related to adult weight and ewe productivity. Body weights of each lamb are required to
be correlated to age, sex, type of birth, season and age of dam.
iv) Prolificacy
Twin producing ewes are more prefitable than single produeing ewes excepting in areas
where grazing conditions are poor.
v) Health
Information on causes of death and ineidenees of diseases helps in planning prophylactic
health programme.
In addition to above data, the following records should be kept properly.
1) Livestock account record
2) Breeding record
3) Lambing record
4) Shearing/wool yield record
5) Mortality record
6) Sale of animals and wool record
7) Purchase of livestock. medicines and equipments record.
16.1 Guidelines for recording of Data
All recordings should be done by the Farm Manager or Technical Officers available to
him.
16.1.1 Body weights
The body weight should be recorded at birth and after every 7 days upto 28 days and
thereafter every 15 days upto 268 days and thereafter every 30 days upto 35 8 days. The earlier
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