PRODUCTIVE PARAMETERS OF SHEEP IN INTRA– AND INTERLINE SELECTION OF RUSSIAN MEAT MERINO BREED

Abstract

In order to improve the productive performance of fine-wool sheep breeds,
which are bred in the region, a fine-wool sheep breed – Russian Meat Merino of meat and
wool type of productivity (RMM) has been developed. It has its own genetic structure, which
is represented by six inbreed lines. These lines differ from each other by live weight and earliness, shearing and wool yield, wool tortuosity, density and fineness, which is a topical issue
at the moment.
Numerous scientific studies have proven that line breeding of animals is a particularly
important method for improving breeding herds. The significance of this method lies in the
fact that it allows using the most outstanding animals in terms of productivity, thereby creating and turning them into a genetically differentiated population of animals, which will be
further used for systematic selection of parental pairs, so it will be possible to obtain highly
productive crossbred sheep from them.
In the genetic structure of the breed there are six intrabreed lines, which have differences in growth energy, live weight, shearing and wool yield, as well as the quality of the
wool.
In those farms that breed Russian Meat Merino based on the characteristics of linear
animals and the use of stud rams in experiments, we have developed a scheme of their selection. As a result of the obtained data, it was established that the linear young ewes of groups I
and II were 6,2 and 2,3% behind the crossed young ewes in terms of live weight at all ages, as
well as in terms of shearing in both washed and dirty wool. In terms of percentage of clean
fiber, yield was 1,3 and 0,5 abs. % higher.