Effect of selected factors on basic reproduction, growth and carcass traits and meat production in Texel sheep

• Main Authors: Ladislav Štolc, Martin Ptáček, Luděk Stádník, Marek Lux
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Mendel University Press 2011-01-01
• Series: Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis
• Subjects: sheep; Texel; meat efficiency; reproduction attributes; lamb
• Online Access: https://acta.mendelu.cz/59/5/0247/

The objective of this work was to determine the effect of lambing year, sire effect, parity of ewes’ lambing (PL) and gender on selected indicators of meat production and fertility in a Texel sheep herd. The evaluation proceeded for a period of 5 years, when 356 ewe – lambs and 321 Texel ram – lambs were monitored. Processing of the data set was done by the SAS program, GLM procedure. The lambing year had a significant effect (P < 0.05; 0.01) on all indicators observed except litter size. The sire effect was found to be significantly (P < 0.05; 0.01) related to all indicators monitored. The significant differences (P < 0.01) were found in fat thickness and lambs’ muscularity. The frequency of lambs’ gender was not significantly affected by the litter size and number of lambs weaned. Lambs’ gender affected the MLLT depth of lambs nonsignificantly. Litter size, as well as the number of weaned lambs, increased with the higher PL (1.44 with primiparas, 2.17 with ewes at the 5th and subsequent lambings, P < 0.01; resp. 1.31 with primiparas, 2.01 with ewes at the 5th and subsequent lambings, P < 0.01). The live weight at 100 days of age was significantly lower in lambs from the 5th and following litters, as well as the daily gain from birth till 100 days of age (DG 100) and MLLT depth in comparison to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th litters (P < 0.05). On the average, ram – lambs reached a higher live weight at 100 days of age (+1.79 kg, P < 0.01), and DG 100 in contrast to female (+17.22 g, P < 0.01).