Calculating economic weights for growth, reproduction and wool traits in Makui sheep breed by Ecoweight software

Abstract

Production, reproduction, management and economical parameters obtained from data collected from 1993 to 2012 Makui sheep research station of West Azerbaijan province in Iran were evaluated in the present study. Traits included of fertility, pregnancy rate, lamb weights from birth to the end of period, survival rate of lambs, wool production weight, average daily gain and milk production. The present value of profit computed as the difference between total revenues and total costs per ewe per year. The numeric derivation of each considered trait is calculated by increasing and decreasing the average value of the trait while was kept the other characters in the average. First all costs, revenues, profits and flock structure determined then interned input files and running the software ECOWEIGHT. The results showed that economic values per unit increase in the traits of birth weight, daily gain from birth until weaning, daily gain from weaning until end of period, conception rates ewes, little size, lamb survival, lifetime for ewes, milk yield and wool yield were 0.66, 0.51, 0.03, 0.66, 0.25, 0.85, 0.93, 0.53 and 1, respectively. Breeding objective in Makui sheep breed were productive wool yield, lifetime, lamb survival at weaning, conception rates ewes, birth weight, milk yield, daily gain from birth until weaning, little size, daily gain from weaning until end of period.

Keywords

• Ecoweight
• breeding
• economic weight
• lamb
• wool