Strategies to increase the production of beef of hair sheep from theHuasteca Potosina, Mexico

Abstract

The objective of the study was to evaluated the birth (BW) and weaning weights (WW) of Blackbelly (BB) lambs and its Katahdin crosses (KK) x BB (KB) in a fl ock kept under grazing conditions and supplementation from Huasteca Potosina. The work was carried out in the “Barrancon” farm located at Tanlajas, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The climate is classified as warm sub-humid with an average precipitation and annual temperature of 1,678.5 mm and 24.5°C, respectively. The farm has padlock of Cynodon dactylon and Cynodon nlemfuensis . One hundred BB ewes were used, with an average weight of 23 kg, with two KK and two BB males. They were assigned to a 2 (feeding) by 2 (parental breed) factorial arrangements. The feeding types were single grazing, and grazing plus 250 grams of protein supplementation, and the parental breeds were BB and KK. The lambs were weighed at born and weaning in a roman scale. Analysis of variance was carried out by least square methods. The averages at BW and WW were 2.74 ± 0.74 and 11.4 ± 0.4 kg, respectively. The breed affected only the birth weight (P<0.01) with the lambs sired by KK weighting 11.2% more than the BB’s ones. The lambs that received supplementation weighed 16.4% more at weaning, while the KB sired lambs were 1.4% heavier than BB’s at weaning (P>0.05). It is concluded that BB produce heavier lambs at birth, but further analysis need to be carried out to study the economic and sheep production system implication under the conditions of the present trail.