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The effect of genotype on lamb carcass characteristics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

S.D. Johnston  and
R.W.J. Steen
S.D. Johnston
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co Down, BT26 6DR
R.W.J. Steen
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co Down, BT26 6DR
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Extract

The most important consideration in quality lamb production is the breed genotype used. Much work has examined a selection of terminal sire breeds, but less emphasis has been placed on assessing the influence of the female genotype on carcass quality. The benefits of the Texel breed in terms of higher carcass lean content has been highlighted (More O’Ferrall and Timon, 1977; Kempster et al 1987), but it has been suggested that Texel lambs are penalised under current MLC grading guidelines. Leymaster and Jenkins (1993) reinforced this suggestion by indicating that Texel sired lambs deposited proportionally more subcutaneous and less intermuscular fat than Suffolk sired lambs.

This study was carried out to compare the Dutch Texel (DT) and Suffolk (S) breeds as terminal sires and crossed with Greyface (GF) and Suffolk Cheviot (SC) dams. The effect of the proportion of DT blood in lambs on carcass quality was also examined. For this purpose GF, DT x GF and pure DT lambs were compared.

Type
Sheep Genetics
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 1995 , March 1995 , pp. 45
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 1995

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References

Kempster, A.J., Croston, D. and Jones, D.W. (1987) Tissue growth and development in crossbred lambs sired by ten breeds. Livestock Production Science, 16 : 145–162.10.1016/0301-6226(87)90016-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leymaster, K.A. and Jenkins, J.G. (1993) Comparison of texel- and suffolk-sired crossbred lambs for survival, growth and composition traits. Journal of Animal Science, 70 : 859–869.10.2527/1993.714859xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
More O’Ferrall, G.J. and Timon, V.M. (1977) A comparison of eight sire breeds for lamb production. 1. Lamb growth and carcass measurements. Journal of Agricultural Research, 16 : 267–275.Google Scholar