Analyses of the 1991 lambing records of 27 flocks comprising 15020 ewes on the Ceylanpınar State Farm showed clearly that age significantly affects fertility, abortion and still births, twinning, number of lambs born per ewe served and per ewe lambed. Mean twinnig rates for the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and over age groups were 2.1, 8.0, 15.3, 14.8, 12.4 and 13.4 respectively. Fecundity increased until the age of 4 and 5, but started to decline with further increased in age.
Previous research on the same farm concluded that high plane of nutrition (flushing) can increase twinning significantly (127.7 versus 106.1). Another research show that twinning can be successfully increased to over 65 by using intra vaginal sponges.
In a recent study conducted on Ceylanpınar, mean lactation lenght and lactation yield were found to be 168.3 days, 174.6 kg; 187.2 days, 231.4 kg and 175.6 days , 170.5 kg for the exceptional ewes of the national flocks, exceptional ewes of the State Farm and control ewes respectively. The outstanding ewes of Ceylanpınar State Farm demonstrated a clear superiority over the other two groups with respect to lactation yield.
Due to its high milk production potential Awassi breed can be utilized as sire in improving milk production of many non-improved Asiatic and African breeds. In Turkey it has been crossed with some indigenous breeds of Iran, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Spain and Yugoslavia with objective of increasing milk production in the crossbreeds.
However for the genetic improvent of the Awassi sheep , the unique population of the Ceylanpınar state Farm represents a good experimental material. A variation of 97.5-469.2 kg in lactation yield among all the Satate Farm Awassi indicates the scope for the succes of the future genetic improvement of this breed
