Influence of Wiltshire Horn rams on Romanov ewes fertility and performance of crossbred lambs

Abstract

According to the current demands of domestic and international markets, meat-producing sheep breeding is considered as having the best future. Although Romanov sleep ewes produce litters of 3 to 5 lambs at a time, but lambs show low growth intensity and the dressing percentage accounts for only 40%.The aim of our study was to determine the influence of Wiltshire Horn rams on the fertility of Romanov sheep, their progeny weight, meat percentage and wool length. Twelwe Romanov ewes and two rams of Romanov and Wiltshire Horn breeds (2 groups of 6 ewes and 1 ram each) and their progeny (18 purebred and 14 crossbred) were used in the study. Ewe fertility was evaluted by the number of lambs born per litter. The lambs were weighed at day 1 and 7 months of age. Wool quality was assessed at 1 and 7 months of age. Lamb muscularity was determined visually on a 1 to 9 point scale. The mating fur bearing Romanov sheep with woolless mutton type Wiltshire Horn ram had a positive influence of ewes and higher weight of newborn lambs, their growth intensity and muscularity. Although the number of crossbred lambs born was by 26.50% lower, but they were by 1.04-1.25 kg heavier (P<0.001) and gained daily by 36.55-50.85 g more (P<0.001), and thus exceeded the purebreds by weight from 8.74 to 11.69 kg (P<0.001) and had 1.30-1.87 points higher muscularity than the purebred lambs. [...].