Lactation regularity and milk quality analysis of Tan sheep from 1 to 60 days postpartum

WANG Jin; WANG Tailu; MA Qing

doi:10.13557/j.cnki.issn1002-2813.2025.01.007

Abstract：The experiment aimed to study the changes in lactation yield and milk quality of Tan sheep ewes from 1～60 days postpartum.A total of 40 healthy Tan sheep ewes with similar parity and expected parturition dates were selected as potential subjects,and after smooth delivery,20 ewes and their offspring(half male and half female)were chosen as the experimental animals.The results showed that the lactation pattern could be divided into two stages:A rapid increase in the early stage of lactation and a slow decline after reaching the lactation peak,with the peak milk yield achieved on the 9th day postpartum(1 423.75 g),and a total milk yield of 55.07 kg over 1～60 days,with an average daily milk yield of 917.83 g.With the increase of lactation days,the content of milk protein,milk fat,and lactose in the milk of Tan sheep ewes gradually decreased over time,while the dry matter content showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing;the iron content in the milk was significantly higher on the 40th,50th,and 60th days compared to the 10th,20th,and 30th days(P＜0.05),the content of vitamin A was significantly higher on the 60th day compared to the 10th,20th,30th,and 40th days(P＜0.05),and the content of vitamin D was significantly higher on the 50th and 60th days compared to other times(P＜0.05).The study indicates that the results can provide reference for the scientific feeding of Tan sheep,thereby increasing the economic benefits of sheep farms and providing technical assistance for the formulation of reasonable early weaning and rapid fattening of lambs.