New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research abstracts

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Effect of sire breed on growth, carcass, and wool characteristics of lambs born to Merino ewes in New Zealand

G. H. SCALES

Te Awa
Private Bag
Rangiora, New Zealand

A. R. BRAY*
D. B. BAIRD
D. O'CONNELL
T. L. KNIGHT

AgResearch
Canterbury Agriculture and Science Centre
P.O. Box 60
Lincoln, New Zealand
Email: braya@agresearch.cri.nz

Abstract  Sire breed effects were studied in 1080 lambs born over three years to Merino ewes and 6-10 sires each of Merino, Poll Dorset, Border Leicester, Texel, Oxford Down, and Suffolk breeds. Ewes bearing crossbred lambs required more assistance at lambing than those with purebred Merino lambs. Poll Dorset cross lambs grew fastest and purebred Merinos slowest from tailing until they were 12 months old (P < 0.05). While purebred Merinos tended to have less carcass fat throughout the trial, differences between the other crossbreds changed with time. Texel and Poll Dorset cross carcasses generally had larger eye muscle size (P < 0.05) than other sire breeds. Carcasses were "blockier" for crossbreds, particularly Texel and Oxford Down, but weights of individual cuts were similar for all breeds. At 12 months of age, greasy fleece weights were heaviest (P < 0.05) in Border Leicester cross lambs (4.4 kg) and least in Suffolk crosses (3.1 kg). It is concluded that Merino cross lambs can produce 20-kg carcasses by 9 months of age under improved pasture conditions. Local sire breeds were competitive with more recently imported sire breeds for meat production.

Keywords  sheep; sheep breed; lamb meat; carcass traits; wool production

New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, 2000, Vol. 43: 93-100

0028-8233/00/4301-0093 $7.00/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 2000

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (675K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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