Determination of some physiological and phenotypic characteristics of the pirit sheep reared in extensive conditions

Purpose of this study was to determine morphological and physiological characteristics of "Pırıt" sheep breed well adapted to the Isparta region. Measurements consisting of ear length, head length, forehead width, chest circumference, chest depth, wither height, rump height, tread height, body length were taken from 783 ewes and 36 rams ranging between 1-7 years and raised in 6 farms in 2 districts of Isparta. Chosen farms were a mixture of the base, medium, and top herds. Variance analysis showed that farm and district had an effect on body length, hip height, wither height, rump height, chest depth, chest circumference, and ear length, whereas farms had effect on head length and forehead width. The t-test showed that sex had an effect on body length, hip height, wither height, rump height, chest depth, chest circumference, head length, and forehead width and did not have an effect on ear length. For the growth criteria, the farm records of 42 farms in 7 districts from 2013 to 2017 were analyzed. Results showed that farm and the district had an effect on lamb birth weight, lamb weaning weight, and daily live weight gain, in all years. Results of t-test showed that sex had an effect on the birth weight of lamb in all years, on the weight of lamb weaning weight only in 2014 and on the live weight gain in 2016. For reproductive performance criteria, the records of 42 farms in 7 districts from 2013 to 2017 were examined. It was found that the twinning rate increased to %13.04 to %26.67 and doubled at the end of these five years.