MEAT AND INTERIOR FEATURES OF EWES OBTAINED FROM PARENTS OF DIFFERENT AGE

Abstract

In this article the meat productivity of offspring received from reciprocal selection of parental pairs of 1.5 and 3.5 years age of the Soviet merino breed sheep.  It was found that, on average, the ewes obtained from the uneven-aged selection on the slaughter mass exceeded the ewes received from the even- age selection by 6.2% (P <0.05), on the slaughter yield this superiority was 1.5 abs. percent.  It was also found that the ewes obtained from the lambed ewes of 3,5 years age and the rams of 1,5 years age exceeded the herdmates of other variants of selection for slaughter mass from 4.3% (P> 0.05) to 14.9 (P <0  , 05) and slaughter output - from 0.6 to 2.3 abs.percent.  The coefficient of meat in the ewes from the uneven-aged selection was on the average higher by 0.27 units.  The first class of cuts was the most in Group II animals (94.2%), which exceeded the herdmates of Groups I, III and IV by this indicator - by 1.8, 0.2 and 0.7%.  The first sort of cuts was greatest in animals obtained from lambed ewes of 3.5 years age and rams of 1.5 years age (94.2%), which exceeded the herdmates from 0.2 to 1.8%. The ewes from the uneven-age selection exceeded herdmates from the even-age selection in the length of the small intestine and the average index was 27.8 m, which is higher by 0.5 m, or by 1.8%.  The results of the research showed that in terms of meat and interior characteristics, the offspring received from the parents of uneven-age selection are superior to those obtained from the even-age selection parents.

The research was carried out with the financial support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia under the Agreement No. 14.613.21.0081 with the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia from November 22, 2017, the unique identifier: RFMEFI61317X0081.