The evaluation of body weight and morphometric traits in local and crossbred sheep at birth age

Abstract

Selection and crossbreeding were implemented by the breeders to improve the livestock performance in Indonesia. The study was aimed to evaluate the progeny performance of crossbred and local sheep, specifically the fat-tailed sheep (FTS) and Garut sheep at birth age. The research method used was a case study in the field with observation variables at birth age such as body weight (BW), chest girth (CG), body length (BL), and body height (BH). The material in this study was 92 sheep aged at birth. The data was analysed using analyses of variance (ANOVA), applying R Studio software. The statistical analysis demonstrated that the breeds exhibited highly significant differences (P<0.01) in BW, BH, CG, and BL corrected for single birth, except the BL for twins birth. Additionally, there were significant differences (P<0.05) in CG for both single and twin birth. Fat-tailed sheep (FTS) exhibited superior performance in BW, BH, BL, and CG. Crossbred sheep also showed advantages in BW, BH, and CG. The best birth performance in this study was local sheep, specifically the FTS.