ABSTRACT
The Golden Grove Estate flock of Barbados Blackbelly sheep is privately owned and maintained as part of a mixed crop and livestock plantation operation. Lambing records kept from March 1975 to May 1978 provided information on litter size and lambing intervals from a total of 303 different ewes and 554 lambings. Lambings occurred in every month during which records were kept, although there were few lambings during two 3-month intervals between 1975 and 1978 or as a result of a deliberate attempt to group lambings. The distribution of lambing intervals also reflects factors such as ewes not being mated when in estrus and conception failures due to either the ewe or the ram. The weights of multiples are higher than predicted by the formula of H. P. Donald and W. S. Russell, which predicts weights of twins and triplets, or that of A. G. Dickinson et al., which predicts weights of lambs in any litter size.
