PRODUCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE JALGIN MERINO SHEEP BREED OF DIFFERENT LINES, DEPENDING ON KEMPY WOOL AT BIRTH

Abstract

The studies were carried out in the Agricultural Production Cooperative "Plemzavod
Vtoraya Pyatiletka", Ipatovsky District. The study materials were Jalgin Merino rams of three
lines – fine, medium and strong. The livability and live weight of non-kempy wool and
kempy wool lambs of different lines were studied by periods from birth to 14-month-old age.
It was found that the livability at 4-month-old age in the 3rd "strong" group was higher in
comparison with herdmates of "fine" and "medium" groups by 3.5 and 1.0 abs. percent. From
4 to 14-month-old age, rams of the 2nd "medium" line group were the best in livability.
Comparing the live weight between the lines among the non-kempy wool lambs, it was found
that the largest non-kempy wool lambs were in the 3rd "strong" line group, which were
significantly superior at 14-month-old age to non-kempy wool lambs of the 1st group by 7.3%
(P <0.01) and the 2nd "medium" line group by 5.1% (P <0.05). As for the lambs that were
born with kempy wool, the largest 14-month-old animals were from the 3rd group, which were
superior to their herdmates from the 1st group by 6.9% (P <0.001) and the 2nd group – by
4.0% (P <0, 01).