Weight growth and slaughter qualities of purebreed and crossbred lambs

Aim. Comparison of the productive qualities of purebred lambs of the Edilbay breed and crossbred animals obtained from crossing rams of the Dorper breed with ewes of the Edilbay breed. Materials and Methods. Scientific and economic experience was carried out in the conditions of the M.G. Shangeraev farm (Chernoyarsky district, Astrakhan region) on 60 heads of lambs of the Edilbay breed and Dorper-Edilbay crossbreds aged from birth to 4 months of age. Live weight of lambs was determined by individual weighing on electronic scales with an accuracy of 0.5 kg in the morning before feeding, pre-slaughter weight – after fasting for 24 hours. Meat productivity was determined by the results of the control slaughter of 3 typical lambs for each group according to the method of All-Russian Research Institute of Beef Cattle Breeding (1984). The digital material of the research was processed by the methods of variation statistics according to Plokhinsky N.A. (1969) on a PC using Microsoft Office software and determining Student's reliability criterion. Results. Under the identical growing conditions up to 4 months of age, the average live weight of crossbred lambs was 43.6 kg, which is 3.1 kg or 7.65% higher compared to purebred edilbays. Feed costs per 1 kg of live weight gain in crossbred animals were lower by 0.34 energy feed units and 36.7 g of digestible protein. The superiority of crossbred lambs over purebred animals was 2.33 kg or 11.34% in slaughter weight, and 1.68% in slaughter yield. Conclusion. The production of young lamb from purebred and crossbred animals is expedient. The best indicators of live weight and slaughter qualities had crossbred Dorper x Edilbayevsky lambs with relatively low costs of energy feed units and digestible protein per 1 kg of live weight gain.