Abstract
The German Rhönschaf breed belonged to the rare breeds in the past decade but has now recovered in respect to the population size. A change in the breeding goal towards an increasing of body weight can be observed. The influence of adult ewe's weight and the birthtype on lambs daily gain and the total lamb production per ewe was proved under three intensities of feeding (management regimes). The lambs weights at the 100th day showed a significant difference between feeding levels. Interactions between sire times intensity as well as between type of birth times intensity were not significant. The weight of the dam had a non linear influence of the produced total lamb weight at day 100 with a maximum between 71 kg and 75 kg in the most extensive group. The intensive group and the pooled data both showed an increasing (non linear) regression with a maximum above the realised maximum weight. Twins had in all intensities a superior lamb production output. Investigations on auction prices showed a preference for heavier rams. The variance in the price is caused mainly by the rams body weight (r = 0,42). Increasing the ewe's weight is desirable under practical conditions and is justified on the base of this investigation.