Growth Rate Performance of Sonadi Sheep in Terms of Growth Efficiency

The present study was conducted to assess the effect of non-genetic factors on growth efficiency of Sonadi sheep of different age groups. In this study, data on 1396 Sonadi sheep maintained from 2012 to 2019 under the Mega Sheep Seed Project, College of Veterinary and Animal Science, Navania, Vallabhnagar, Rajasthan, were analysed to assess the effect of non-genetic factors (sex, type of birth, year of birth, and season of birth) on growth efficiency viz. 0-3, 3-6, 6-9 and 9-12 months age groups. The overall least-squares means along with standard error for GE1 (0-3M), GE2 (3-6M), GE3 (6-9M) and GE4 (9-12M) were 2.57±0.10, 0.496±0.03, 0.244±0.24 and 0.266±0.02 kg/kg, respectively. Year of birth had a highly significant (P≤0.01) effect on all growth traits. The effect of the season of birth on growth efficiency was also highly significant (P≤0.01) for GE1 and GE2 groups while significant (P≤0.05) for GE3 and GE4 groups. The sex of lamb showed a significant (P≤0.05) effect on GE1 and non-significant on the rest of the groups (GE2, GE3, GE4), whereas the effect of the type of lamb on growth efficiency was found to be non-significant on all groups.