SUMMARYOn the College of Agriculture farm in Abu-Ghraib 147 ejaculates were collected from three docked and four normal Awassi rams born during November 1962. The work covered a period from 1 April 1967 to 31 March 1968.Nine semen characters, namely, volume, mass activity, individual motility, sperm concentration, sperm number, pH, methylene blue reduction time and the percentages of abnormal and dead sperms, were studied. The effect of season and docking on these characters was investigated.Seasonal variation was observed in all traits studied. On the whole, semen quality was poorest during winter and best during summer. The effect of docking was more pronounced on sperm concentration, sperm number and percentage of abnormal sperms. Docking appeared to increase sperm production and reduce sperm abnormality.

A total of 1659 ejaculates was collected from four Friesian bulls imported from Europe and ten of their offspring born in Iraq while in regular artificial service at the Abu-Ghraib Experiment Station. The work covered a period from 1 January 1965 to 30 June 1967.The five semen characteristics, volume, density, mass activity, individual motility and pH were studied and the influence of age of bull and season on these characters was investigated. The relationships between the characters were also investigated.Deterioration was observed in volume of ejaculate, density, mass activity and individual motility in the Iraqi Friesians. Influence of season on all semen characters lacked significance with the exception of mass motility in the European Friesian bulls (P < 0-05). Highly significant positive correlations were found between most of the characters studied.The aim of the present work was to study the volume, density, mass activity, individual motility and pH of the semen from imported Friesian bulls and pure Friesian bulls born in Iraq, with reference to the effect of age of bull and season on these characters. The relationships between the various semen characters were also investigated.