Íslenskar landbúnaðarrannsóknir - 01.03.1970, Page 37

COLOUR INHERITANCE IN ICELANDIC SHEEP 35
able about tlie experimental flock at Hest-
ur, but in some of the private flocks only
a limited amount of information could be
obtained.
Tlie layout of the cards on which the
data were punched was planned for tlie
collection of the following items per each
ewe recorded in the study.
Farm and owner.
Identification number of ewe.
Birth year of ewe.
Colour of ewe and colour score for white
ancl grey colour.
Identification number, birth year, home
farm, colour and colour score of the
sire and dam of the ewe.
For each mating of a ewe the following
information was wanted:
Identification number, birth year, liome
farm, colour and colour score of the
rams to which the ewe had been mat-
ed.
Date and fate of mating.
Date of lambing.
Number of lambs born.
For each lamb the following items were
wanted:
Sex, fate in spring, identification num-
ber, accurate colour description and
colour score, fate of lamb in autumn,
and for lambs which were kept for
breeding tlieir future farm, owner and
flock book number.
In the experimental flock at Hestur all
the iterns listed above were available for
the slieep born on the farm while birth and
pedigree records on the lambs bought to
the farm when it was restocked in 1951
were not available. The amount of in-
formation from the other farms varied
somewhat, but the minimum requirements,
which were identification and colour de-
scriptions of sire, dam and lamb, as well
as number of lambs per birth and their
sex, were always met with.
C. PREPARATION OF RECORDS
FOR PUNCHING
Before the records could be punched,
non-numerical information had to be con-
verted to a numerical code. The farms
were numbered from 1—25, and the owners
within farrns also coded, if more than one
owner was found on any farrn.
The following iterns were coded before
punching:
Code Meaning
Fate of mating:
0 Ewe conceived and lambed
1 Ewe came back on lieat
2 Ewe was barren
3 Ewe aborted
4 Ewe lambed but number of lambs
and colour not known
5 Ewe died between mating and lamb-
ing
Sex of lamb:
1 Male
2 Female
3 Sex not known
Eate of lamb in spring ancl summer:
0 Lived until autumn
1 Born dead
2 Died at birtli
3 Diecl between birth and shearing
4 Died after shearing or did not re-
turn from summer pasture
Fate of lamb in autumn
0 Slaughtered
1 Kept for breeding on home farm
2 Sold for breeding
In addition to the above coding, each
ewe on record in the collected data was
genotyped with respect to colour before
the punching of the data was started.