Studies on Possibility of Producing High Quality Lambs By Crossbreeding Among Sakız, Kıvırcık and German Black Headed Mutton Sheep

Authors: Ahmet ALTINEL, Mehmet EVRİM, Mustafa ÖZCAN, Hasan BAŞPINAR, Fazıl DELİGÖZOĞLU

Abstract: This study has been carried out to get more and rapid growing lambs fit for slaughter by crossbreeding Kivircik ewes with Sakiz rams so as to produce F 1 females with high fertility and high milk yield and crossbreeding these F 1 females with German Black Headed Mutton rams. Studies have been carried out at Bandırma Sheep Breeding Research Institute. On the first step of this study 5 Sakiz rams and 134 Kivircik ewes had been used. When F 1 females produced by Sakiz X KIvircik crossbreeding became mature, they had been crossbred with German Black Headed Mutton rams. The growth and carcass charac-teristics of the lambs born from this crossbreeding had been investigated. The data obtained, show that the liveability and the growth performance of Sakiz X Kivircik crossbred F 1 females had been satisfac-tory but prolific birth characteristic had been cosidered to be below the expectations. However, the lambs fit for slaughter had shown a rapid growth performance especially at the early ages and they had given high quality carcasses. The results of this study show that the usage of German Black Headed Mutton rams in getting high quality lambs in Turkey can bring important perfor-mance increase and can increase the low carcass weight of the native sheep breeds.

Keywords: Sheep, Crossbreeding, Fertility, Growth, Survival Rate, Carcass Characteristics.

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