Meat productivity of young sheep animals of different origin

Abstract

Meat quality and slaughter indices of sheep depend primarily on breed peculiarities and are connected with age, fatness, sex, feeding and keeping conditions. According to the pre-slaughter mass, slaughter mass and mass of paired carcass, crossbred animals exceed their pure-bred counterparts. Experimental work was сonducted at Terra Rich LLC in the Pologivskyi district of Zaporizhia region. Tupping rams (Rom) and Hisar (H) were used on ewes of the Romanivska breed. Two groups of cowslip were formed: a control from purebred animals of the Romanivska breed (Rm × Rm) and experimental crossbreed with Hisar (Rm × H). Control slaughter of young rams was performed in accordance with the method of estimating the slaughtering performance (meet productivity) of sheep at 8 months of age. The morphological composition of the carcasses was determined by the results of the deboned half-carcass after 24-hour cooling to determine the dressing percentage of pulp, bones and fat. The chemical composition was determined in the average meat sample, in the longest muscle of the back (mus. longissimus dorsi) the amount of intramuscular fat was determined with the subsequent caloricity count of the meat. Crossbreed animals had higher indices of productivity than the pure-bred born in the same year of the Romanivska breed. The pre-slaughter live weight of crossbreed animals was greater by 29.2 %; slaughter weight – by39.7 %. Dressing percentage of the crossbreed animals was 47.4 %, and in pure-breds – 43.8 %. The crossbreed animals had absolute preference of varietal cuts: meat of the first сlass – 94.57 %, of the second – 5.43 %, in purebreds – 91.60 and 8.40 %, respectively. The preference for purebred Romanivska sheep on the caloricity of the muscle tissue was 8.7 %. In carcasses of crossbreed young animals, the relative mass of muscle tissue was 78.8 %, bones – 21.2%, versus 73.3% and 26.7 %, respectively, in purebred counterparts. The pulpiness ratio for crossbreed young rams was 3.7 and for purebred young rams was only 2.7. The positive effect of crossbreeding on the meat productivity of young animals has been established. Crossing the ewes of the Romanivska breed with the tupping rams of the Hisar breed can be successfully used in commercial sheep raisings.