Effects of birth-rearing type on weaning weights in meat sheep are systematically associated with differences in mean performance among flocks

Table 6 Differences between adjusted weaning weights of twin-born, twin-reared and triplet-born, triplet-reared lambs (expressed as twin – triplet) in high- versus low-performance flocks from the TBR = 33 dataset by applying different adjustment protocols

Adjustment protocol	Flock performance level		Difference (low – high)
Adjustment protocol	Low	High	Difference (low – high)
Simple additive	0.18 ± 0.55	0.03 ± 0.58	0.15 ± 0.80
Simple multiplicative	0.97 ± 0.52^†	−0.85 ± 0.55	1.82 ± 0.76^*
Flock-specific multiplicative	−0.03 ± 0.69	0.71 ± 0.73	−0.74 ± 1.00
Simple multiplicative with interaction	0.97 ± 0.52	−0.84 ± 0.55	1.81 ± 0.76^*
Flock-specific multiplicative with interaction	−0.03 ± 0.69	0.71 ± 0.73	−0.74 ± 1.00

Based on five (of 20) flocks with the lowest flock means and five flocks with the highest flock means for weaning weight in the TBR = 33 dataset (Table 1); ^†, *: P < 0.10 and 0.05, respectively

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