Behaviour of the population structure and performance indicators in sheep production systems in Colombia

Objective. The behavior of the population structure, indicators of reproduction and production in sheep were determined. Materials and methods. 104 sheep farms were monitored, in 7 regions of Colombia, corresponding to a population of 7708 animals, distributed in: Inventory, Infants, Growth 1, Development, Completion and Adults. It was applied descriptive statistics and simple ANOVA and with covariance. Results. The mean Inventory per farm is 74.1±79 heads; category Infants corresponds to 8.7% of the population, Growth1 15.3%, Development 12%, Completion 20.8% and Adults 43.3%. The Age of Conception in Corderas was 15.7±5.5 months; Age at First Delivery of 20.7±5.5 months; the Birth Interval Concepción was 160.3±65.4 days, the Interval Between Births was 310.3±65.4 days. The Birth Weight of males was 4.2±4 kg and females 3.4±1.2 kg, without significant differences (p>0.05); Weaning Weight, adjusted at 90 days (3 months) in males was 16.8±6.4 kg and females 16.3±5.6 kg, without significant differences (p>0.05); the weight at 12 months for males was 34.9±13.7 kg and females 33.4±10.7 kg, without significant differences (p>0.05). Discussion. Different sizes of farms are evident; the onset of reproductive activity is late, with Interval Between Births that maintain a not very dynamic reproductive rhythm. The productive variables are within the range. Conclusions. The indicators obtained represent referential information on the population structure and productive behavior of sheep production systems in the seven monitored regions of Colombia.