Performance of Philippine sheep under village condition.
1987
Parawan O.O. | Ovalo A. | Hipol S. | Curativo J.
A study was conducted to compare the production performance, body measurements and carcass characteristics of castrate and non-castrate Philippine sheep under village condition. The study area located at Barangay Bagalupa, Labangan, Zamboanga del Sur [Philippines] is a typical rainfed crop-livestock agriculture with abundant indigenous grasses and legumes. Twenty experimental sheep (10 castrates and 10 non-castrates) about 3-4 months of age were distributed to individual farmer cooperators and were raised up to 18 months. Mean liveweights for castrate and non-castrate sheep at 18 months old were 26 and 26.31 kilograms, respectively. The average daily gain obtained were 43.96 and 44.65 grams, respectively for the castrate and non-castrate sheep. Length of body, height at withers, heart girth, midriff girth, and flank girth were 69.5 cm, 61.5 cm, 77.6 cm, 81.3 cm, and 73.8 cm for the castrates and 82.2 cm, 65 cm, 79 cm, 82.4 cm, 77.1 cm for the non-castrates, respectively. Significant differences in mean values for carcass length and dressing percentage based on liveweight at slaughter were noted. The non-castrates gave significantly higher (P<.05) values for carcass length (76.3 cm) and dressing percentage (46.5%) than the castrates with carcass length of 63.30 cm and dressing percentage of 43.4%. No significant differences were observed in other carcass traits studied. Likewise, insignificant differences in the weight of internal organs were observed between the castrates and the non-castrates.
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