In sheep farming, one should strive for the profitability of animals in the short term - this idea already prevails in the improvement of dairy and beef cattle.

This was stated by the head of the company "Carpathian Stars" Andrey Popovich, writes The Ukrainian Farmer magazine.

As production increases, so does the cost, causing some animals to no longer be profitable.

“All measurable traits of an animal have a certain genetic regulation and are related to each other so that they can be assessed. This allows you to integrate the genetic values ​​of the traits that determine the profitability of sheep into a general index or a combined index, which is subsequently used as a criterion for selecting nephews,” said Andrey Popovich.

Therefore, one should focus not only on the production of the animal, but also on the cost of this production.

Genetic improvement aimed at obtaining a profitable sheep involves the study of many traits that affect the profitability of animals. By this time, sheep dairy programs were focusing on increasing milk production.

This approach was correct, because sheep breeds started from a low level of production, Andrey Popovich noted. It took many years to get good results, and farmers now recognize that genetic improvement meant more profitability. However, this selection is focused almost exclusively on the production of volumes of milk.

Therefore, in order to achieve the criteria for selecting a profitable sheep, geneticists must learn other traits. In particular, for the Assaf sheep breed, this is:

- the shape of the lactation curve;

- duration of lactation;

- fertility;

– quality (fat and protein);

– number of somatic cells;

– udder morphology;

- the age of the first lambing and the interval of lambing.

AgroTimes