SLAUGHTER AND MEAT QUALITIES OF LAMBS OF THE ROMANOV BREED DEPENDING ON SLAUGHTER AGE

Abstract

The article presents the indices of slaughter and meat qualities of lambs of the Romanov breed, depending on the age of slaughter. The research was carried out at OOO "Konny Zavod Sovetskiy", Stavropol Krai, Kirovsky urban district, stanitsa Sovetskaya, on lambs of the Romanov breed. Thirty lambs were fattened to eight and nine months of age and five lambs from each group were subsequently slaughtered. The difference in live weight of the lambs influenced the slaughter qualities of the lambs at eight and nine months of age. Meat qualities of the Romanov breed lambs in these age groups were also investigated in terms of carcass morphological composition, slaughter qualities and meatiness coefficient. These differences in the indicators made it possible to determine at what age it is more appropriate to slaughter lambs, obtaining better meat. It was established that if higher-quality mutton is to be obtained, the slaughtering should take place at eight months of age because the edible part, in the flesh-to-bone ratio, of eight-month-old lambs is higher than that of nine-month-old lambs. It is therefore more appropriate to fatten Romanov lambs until they are eight months old.

Keywords

• lambs
• romanov sheep breed
• meat productivity
• slaughter quality of lambs
• slaughter weight
• morphological composition of carcasses
• meatiness coefficient
• carcass weight