@article{Dkhili:11704,
      author        = "Dkhili, Najet and Milán, María José and Caja, Gerardo",
      title         = "{El aumento de la prolificidad en el ganado ovino: Efectos
                       económicos en las explotaciones y fisiológico-nutritivos
                       en corderas de raza Ripollesa}",
      year          = "2013",
      note          = "This paper presents a study done in the Autonomous
                       Community of Catalonia (Spain) on the economic consequences
                       of increasing the prolificacy in farms of Ripollesa sheep
                       breed, a local breed intended for meat production, and its
                       effect on metabolic profile of ewe-lambs retained for
                       replacement. A survey was done in 10 representative farms
                       in 2 provinces of the above cited community: Girona and
                       Barcelona. The obtained data corresponded to the annual
                       average for 2010 and were statistically analyzed and
                       compared by mean of an analysis of variance. Results showed
                       that sheep farms studied were family type, with a flock
                       size of 554 ewes and 20 males, and 353.5 sheep attended by
                       worker, on average. Prolificacy and productivity showed
                       values of 1.28 lambs/litter and 1.18 lambs sold/ewe and
                       year, respectively, on average. Net margin was 10.7 €/ewe
                       per year, on average. Total income was 146.8 €/sheep and
                       year, the greater part coming from lamb sales (61.8%),
                       followed by subsides (36.2%) and the rest from selling
                       culled ewes and wool. On average, total costs were 136.1
                       €/sheep per year. Feeding costs were the greatest (43.2%)
                       in total costs, followed by labor costs (40.9%) and
                       depreciation costs (6.1%). Farms having a prolificacy
                       greater than the mean (1.28 lambs/ litter), were able to
                       pay the total costs and earned 25.8 €/ewe more per year.
                       On the same sense, a prolificacy increase of 0.1
                       lambs/litter resulted in 6.9 €/ewe of extra revenue. A
                       significant correlation between productivity and net margin
                       (R ² = 0.5) was detected, increasing 4.3 € for each 0.1
                       lambs products per ewe and year. Finally, flock size
                       resulted critical, recommending owning more than 400 sheep
                       per farm and exploiting 300 ewes per worker, on average.",
}