Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXVII, Issue 1
Written by Alexandru Gabriel VARTIC, Corneliu Ion NEACSU, Petru Gabriel VICOVAN, Raducu RADU, Constantin PASCAL
The research was carried out within the Research and Development Institute for Sheep and Goat Breeding (R.D.I.S.G.B) Palas - Constanta and aimed at testing the fattening performances of meat crossbreeds (Prolific Palas breed x Meat Palas breed) compared to contemporaries from the Palas Merino breed. The two batches were fattened intensively for a period of 73 days, using granulated fodder with a content of 88% dry matter, 2570 Kcal and 160g digestible protein/kg during fattening. The final body weight was higher by 5.89%, and the average daily gain achieved during the entire fattening period was 14.62% higher in meat crossbreeds compared to contemporaries from the Merino Palas breed. The specific consumption of nutrients was lower in the group of meat crossbreeds that consumed 12.75% less Kcal metabolized energy and respectively 11.03% less protein compared to Merino de Palas lambs. The slaughter yield was higher by 4.7 percentage points in the meat hybrid group. The tissue composition of the carcass was characterized by a higher content in muscle by 1.9 percentage points and lower in bones by 1.22 percentage points in the meat hybrid group compared to contemporaries from the Palas Merino breed. The carcasses of the crossbreeds fell entirely into the U2 class (very good, low-fat carcasses) compared to those of the Palas Merino lambs which were classified into the R2 class (good, low-fat carcasses). Researches have demonstrated the superiority of crossbred meat lambs compared to contemporaries from the Palas Merino breed).
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