Sheep - AgRIS

ams) in November, 1975 for evaluation of their purebred performance as well as that of their
crosses with some indigenous coarse carpet wool breeds under hot and cold-arid conditions.
Out of the aforesaid 250 Karakul sheep, 27 ewes died during air transit, 50 ewes and 10
rams were transferred to Khumbathang in Kargil district of J & K state to study their
performance in cold arid conditions of Ladakh. Eight of the remaining 40 rams were transferred
to the CSWRI main campus at Avikanagar for conducting cross-breeding trials with some
native breeds of sheep.
The geographical location of Bikaner is at 28 o 3' N latitude and 73 o 5' E longitude at 244.84
meters MSL with an annual average rainfall of 281.15 mm. The farm area is undulating having
ranges of sand dunes covering approximately 25% of the total land surface. The soil is sandy
with about 90% sand. The growth,survivability and reproductive performance of Karakul sheep
at the Division of Carpet Wool and Karakul Pelt Production at Bikaner over the years are
presented in Tables 12.1 to 12.6. The studies indicated for very good adaptability of Karakuls
to hot arid conditions. Their tupping and lambing percentages were quite satisfactory and so
were pelts of the lambs born in India well comparable to those born in former USSR.
The geographical location of Khumbathang is at 34°.10 N latitude and 77°.40 E longitude.
The total strength at the end of April,1977 at Sheep Breeding Farm, Khumbathang was 10
rams, 50 ewes, 25 male and 29 female lambs. The growth, survivablity, wool yield and
reproductive performance of Karakul sheep at Khumbathang presented in Tables 12.7 to 12.10
revealed satisfactory performance of these sheep in the cold arid region.
Five Karakul rams were tranferred in 1976 from the Division of Carpet Wool and Karakul
Pelt Production, Bikaner to main campus at Avikanagar to conduct a small trial on crossing of
Karakul with native carpet wool breeds, viz. Chokla, Nali, Malpura and Sonadi during
February-March, 1976 breeding season. As per the results, the Karakuls combined well with
the coarse carpet wool breeds (Malpura and Sonadi) as the crosses with Chokla and Nali were
much inferior in pelt quality as compared to the crosses with Malpura and Sonadi. A research
component ―Exploratory trials on crossbreeding Karakul with indigenous coarse carpet wool
breeds‖ was included as a regular activity of CSWRI. Three such breeding trials were
conducted from 1977-79 to confirm the earlier results. As such, the Malpura and Sonadi ewes
available under mutton component of the AICRP on sheep breeding at CSWRI, Avikanagar
were bred to Karakul rams during their last breeding season‘s oestrus cycle every year. The
relative performance of resultant halfbred crosses was compared with their purebred natives
produced under the mutton component in a routine manner. During the year 1978, 5 more
Karakul rams were added, two out of the previously transferred had died due to specific
diseases. For number of Malpura and Sonadi put to each trial being small, the results on pelt
quality (using the same standards as for Karakul pelts) of the two coarse carpet wool breeds,
viz. Malpura and Sonadi and their halfbreds with Karakul were pooled and are presented in
Table 12.11.
It was seen that of the two native breeds, Malpura lambs produced better pelts as
compared to Sonadi. While the ornament in the native breeds was restricted to only
part of the skin, it was spread over whole of the skin in Karakuls. For Malpura, 5.00,
40.00, 28.33 and 2.50% pelts were of jacket, ribbed, flat and caucassion types as
compared to 1.31, 14.47, 23.68 and 2.62% respectively in Sonadi. Although in general
the halfbreds produced better types of pelts than their purebred native contemporaries,
the Sonadi Karakul halfbreds produced even better types of pelts than the Malpura
halfbreds. The jacket type pelts increased from 1.31% in Sonadi to 42.64% in Karakul
x Sonadi halfbreds, whereas in the Malpura halfbreds, the jacket type pelts were
29.78% as against 5% in Malpura. There was also a decrease in average fibre length in
halfbreds. The spread of ornament increased almost all over the skin and was quite
comparable to the Karakul pelts. There was also improvement in lusture of halfbreds.
The colour varied from patches of black or sur to complete black or sur, offering a
future potential for number of colour lines.
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