Reduced ovulation rate, failure to be mated and fertilization failure/embryo loss are the underlying causes of poor reproductive performance in juvenile ewes

A ewe that is mated as a juvenile (producing a lamb at 1 year of age) will produce an average of only 0.6 lambs to weaning, compared to an average of 1.2 lambs in adult ewes. Understanding the underlying causes of this low reproductive efficiency and designing methods to improve or mitigate these effects could potentially increase adoption of mating juvenile ewes. In Experiment 1, 2 Cohorts of ewes, born a year apart, were mated in order to lamb at 1 and 2 years of age and the performance of the ewes at each age was compared. Onset of puberty, mating by the fertile ram, ovulation rate, early pregnancy (day 30–35) litter size, number of lambs born and number of lambs weaned were measured. In juvenile ewes, by day 35 of pregnancy, 43% of ova had failed to become a viable embryo and this early loss was the largest contributor to the poor reproductive performance observed. Compared with young adult ewes, ovulation rate was lower (p < 0.001), fewer ova were exposed to sperm (p < 0.001) and fertilization failure/embryo loss was increased (p < 0.001) in juveniles. In Experiment 2, the early pregnancy litter size of juveniles was shown to be greater (p < 0.001) in those ewes with a greater ovulation rate (p < 0.001). Attaining puberty prior to introduction of the fertile ram was associated with an increased pregnancy rate (p < 0.001). In juvenile ewes, failure to mate with the ram, lower ovulation rate and increased fertilisation failure/embryo loss underlie their poor reproductive performance.