Performance of three tropical hair sheep breeds.

• Autor(a) principal: RAJAB, M. H.
• Data de Publicação: 1992
• Outros Autores: CARTWARIGHT, T. C., DAH, P. F., FIGUEIREDO, E. A. P. de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da EMBRAPA (Repository Open Access to Scientific Information from EMBRAPA - Alice)
• Texto Completo: http://www.alice.cnptia.embrapa.br/alice/handle/doc/1027856
• topic: Somalis; Morada Nova; Santa Ines; Genotypes; Lamb; Ovino; Performance; Crescimento; Produtividade; Cordeiro; Sheep

Abstract: The performance of three hair sheep breeds (Brazilian Somali, Morada Nova, and Santa Ines) was evaluated in the production environment of northeastern Brazil. Data from a total of 524 lambs sired by 21 rams and out of 190 ewes were analyzed. These data were collected from 1980 to 1983 at Sobral, Brazil from an experiment designed to compare performance of the three breeds. The traits included weights of lambs at birth, weaning, 8 mo, 10 mo, and yearling ages and ewe characters of weight at lambing (EWT), total lamb weight born (LWBI, total lamb weight weaned (Lm, and prolificacy rate (PR1. Differences (P < .011 among breeds were found for all characters. The Brazilian Somali, the smallest and slowest-gaining breed, was less sensitive to yearly variation than were the other breeds. The Santa Ines, the largest and fastest-gaining breed, was superior in LWB and LWW per ewe lambing. Averaged over the 4-yr period, the Morada Nova had the highest PR (1.821, and the Brazilian Somali and Santa Ines had similar PR (1.39 and 1.31, respectively). Environmental effects on PR due to yearly raidall quantity and distribution pattern influenced lamb growth up to weaning and ewe reproduction performance. Breed x year (P < .051 interaction effects on PR were largely attributable to the Somali breeds exhibiting higher PR than the Santa Ines and Morada Nova breeds during the relatively wet years of 1981 and 1982.