Comparative assessment of meat productivity of young sheep with different fattening methods
Authors:   Volgograd State Agrarian University, Chamurliev N.G. , Shperov A.S. ,   Volgograd State Agrarian University, Mel'nikov A.G. ,   Volgograd State Agrarian University, Mel'nikova E.A. ,   Volgograd State Agrarian University, Abdulkhalikov A.M. ,   Volgograd State Agrarian University
Published: January 2024

Purpose. Comparative analysis of meat productivity of rams of the Edilbaev breed during their grazing and fattening. Materials and Мethods. Scientific and production experience was carried out in the peasant farm Abdulkhalikov M.A. (Svetloyarsky district, Volgograd region) on two groups of rams of Edilbaev breed. The total number of animals participating in the experiment is 40. The formation of experimental groups was carried out according to the principle of analogues according to the methodology of A.I. Ovsyannikov (1976). The duration of the main experimental period was 120 days. The dynamics of live weight of rams was determined by measuring this indicator in each animal in the morning, before feeding, at the age of 4, 6 and 8 months. The rams were slaughtered (3 heads from each group) when the animals reached the age of 8 months. When studying meat productivity, we took into account: the weight of animals after fasting, the weight of the chilled carcass, the yield of the carcass, the weight and yield of internal fat, the fat tail weight and the yield of fat tail, slaughter weight, slaughter yield. All digital material obtained during the research was processed using statistical methods and Microsoft Excel software and determination Student-Fisher's reliability criterion of the difference. Results. Data on the dynamics of live weight at the age of 8 months indicate that the average live weight of fattening rams was 55.20 kg versus 50.80 kg for their peers in grazing. The difference in favor of fattening rams was 4.40 kg or 8.66% and was significant. Their superiority in absolute and average daily growth was 3.70 kg and 30.8 g, respectively. Over a period of 4 to 8 months, i.e. over 120 days of research, the average daily gain of fattening rams was 185.0 g versus 154.2 g for grazing rams of the same age. Fattening animals were superior to their peers in other slaughter indicators: in carcass weight - by 1.96 kg or 3.6% (P≤0.01), in internal fat weight - by 0.20 kg or 17.24 % (P≤0.01), in fat tail weight – by 0.60 kg or 18.30% (P≤0.05), by slaughter weight – by 3.93 kg or 14.41% (P≤0.01). At the same time, the slaughter yield for fattening rams was 58.10%, which is 1.90% higher than for grazing animals. According to morphological indicators, fattening rams are superior to their peers in fattening in terms of pulp weight by 2.08 kg or 12.17%. There was no significant difference in the mass of bone and connective tissue between animals of different groups. According to the meatiness index, grazing rams were inferior to their peers by 0.43 absolute values. Conclusion. Intensive fattening of young sheep of Edilbayev breed is a more effective method of fattening compared to grazing. The level of profitability of mutton production for fattening rams was 36.16% versus 13.47% for grazing rams of the same age. The difference in favor of fattening rams was 22.69%.