Introduction:

In Mexico, there is an unmet demand for sheep meat. To remedy this, it is necessary to study production systems and determine the factors affecting them. The objectives of this study were 1) to evaluate the effect of birth year (BY), type of birth (TB), lambing season (LS), lamb sex (LSX) and parity number (PN) on growth characteristics of pre-and postweaning of Pelibuey lambs and 2) to estimate the relationship among pre and postweaning growth characteristics.

Method:

The study was retrospective observational with productive data of a sheep farm located in Tabasco, Mexico. The dataset include records from 389 Pelibuey ewes corresponding 941 lambs and 629 lambing. The statistical model included fixed effects of BY (2005 to 2008), TB (single and multiple), LS (dry, rainy and windy), LSX (female and male), PN (primiparous and multiparous), and as well as random effects dam within BY and experimental error. Partial correlation coefficients of Pearson for all response variables were analized. The pre-weaning dependent variables were: weight at birth (BW), average daily gain of adjusted pre-weaning weight to 60 (ADG1) and adjusted weight at weaning to 60 d of age (WWa). Postweaning dependent variables were: average daily gain of adjusted postweaning weight (ADG2) and adjusted final weight to 106 d (FWa). The final weight corresponds to the last weight recorded in productive records, taken at an average age of 165±49 d.

Results:

With exception of TB and LS on ADG2 and FWa, all independent variables affected (P≤0.05) the preweaning dependent variables. TB and LS affected the preweaning lamb performance (P<0.01). Single lambs had higher BW, ADG1 and WWa (P < 0.01) compared with multiple lambs. The lambs born in rainy and windy had higher BW (P≤0. 05), born in dry and rains had greater ADG1 and those born in dry showed greater WWa (P < 0.01) with respect to other LS. Male lambs had higher BW, WWa, ADG1, FWa and ADG2 than females (P≤0.05). Lambs from multiparous ewes had better growth performance than lambs from primiparous ewes (P<0.01) with exception of ADG2 (P>0.05). The correlation coefficients more high (P < 0.01) were observed between ADG1 with WWa and ADG2 with FWa. The correlation coefficients ranged from 0.27 to 0.88 between the dependent variables studied (P < 0.01).

Conclusion:

The YB affected all preweaning and postweaning variables. However, was not detected a year where all pre and postweaning variables were higher or lower than other BY. The single lambs had better preweaning performance than the multiple. In the dry season the BW of the lambs was lower with respect to other LS. In windy, the lambs had less ADG1 and WWa compared to other LS. Male lambs were higher in their preweaning performance with respect to females. Lambs from multiparous ewes had greater pre-weaning performance. In postweaning performance, ADW2 and FWa were not affected by the TB and LS. ADG2 was affected by PN. The BW, ADG1, WWa and ADG2 had a positive relationship with FWa.