Productivity of milk and milk composition of an indigenous sheep breed in Macedonia

Several production traits have been examined in 180 Ovchepolian sheep during a four-year production period (2010-2013). The sheep ranged in age from the first to the 7th lactation and 4319 individual lactation controls were realized in total. Besides the basic statistics, all data were analysed using a multi-factorial fixed model. The influence of certain factors was studied using the F-test and the analyses were made using the SPSS set of programs. Most of the factors (year, lactation, lambing month and number of milk recording) had a highly significant influence (P<0.001) on daily milk production (milk from the morning, evening and the total amount of milk, % of milk fat and kg fat) in this breed of sheep. The month of milk recording also had a significant influence (P<0.05) on all traits. Only fertility had no impact on the variations in the tested parameters, aside from the total daily milk, on which a highly significant influence was manifested (P<0.01). The average milk lactation among the tested sheep population during all four years was, on average, 58 ± 0.247 l, while the production of milked milk for the same period was 37 ± 0.217 l. The length of the lactation period in these sheep for the four years studied averaged 182 ± 0.31 days. The maximal daily milk yield in this sheep population was measured in 2011 (0.302 ± 0.26 l). Regarding their age, the highest daily milk yield was determined in sheep in the third lactation (0.365 ± 0.26), while those in the 7th lactation had the lowest (0.255 ± 0.27).