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Response of suffolk and texel rams to implantation with melatonin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2017

S.M. Bateman
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham School of Agriculture, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough, Leics. LE12 5RD
W. Haresign
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham School of Agriculture, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough, Leics. LE12 5RD
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Extract

There is currently much interest in overcoming the seasonality of sheep meat supplies in the UK and improving carcass quality. Towards that end, much research effort has been devoted to the development of techniques to induce early or out-of-season breeding in the ewe, but little attention has been paid to the male. Rams of most breeds show marked seasonal fluctuations In reproductive performance, with a depression in testis size, libido and semen quantity and quality during the spring and summer months and a period of high fertility in the autumn/winter, coinciding with the breeding season of ewes of the same breed. Problems of subfertllity which are frequently encountered following the use of various techniques to induce out-of-season breeding in the ewe may therefore be attributable, at least in part, to the ram. The choice of terminal sire for early lambing flocks is further compromised because some breeds of ram show later testicular recrudescence than others.

Type
Ruminant Endocrinology
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1991

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References

Haresign, W. (1990). Controlling reproduction in sheep. In New Developments in Sheep Production - Occasional Publication, British Society of Animal Production, No. 14, pp2337.Google Scholar
Williams, H. LL., Hanif, M. and Cairns, G. (1990). The use of light and melatonin treatments in the preparation of Suffolk rams for out-of-season breeding. In New Developments in Sheep Production - Occasional Publication, British Society of Animal Production, No. 14, pp142145.Google Scholar