Determination of feeding performance, cutting and carcass characteristics of romanov X awassi ( F2 ) male lambs

This study was carried out at Faculty of Agriculture the Dicle University in 2017. Research was conducted to determine the fattening performance, slaughter and carcass characteristics of 64-day-old Romanov x Awassi (F2) hybrid male lambs. The animal material of the research was composed of seven head male lambs, which were weaned 60 day of age born within 4 days and whose weights were close to each other. They were feed up with ad libitum concentrated feed and given 100 g/day wheat straw to each animal for a fattening period of 64 days. At the end of fattening, all lambs were cut to founds slaughtering and carcass characteristics. In the study, average live weights of the lambs at the end of fattening were found 33.03±1.19 kg and the average daily live weight gain during the fattening period was 0.266±0.01 kg. Slaughtering characteristics of lambs at the end of fattening are; slaughterhouse weight respectively 32.72±1.20kg, hot carcass weight 14.48±0.837 kg, head weight 1.80±0.065 kg, foot weight 0.81±0.020 kg, post weight 4.15±0.210 kg, internal fat weight 0.49±0.099 kg, testis weight 0.20±0.035 kg and heart + liver weight was determined as 1.31±0.041 kg. Carcass characteristics of lambs; cold carcass weight 14.051±0.830 kg, kidney weight 0.117±0.004 kg, kidney-pelvic fat weight 0.147±0.029 kg, tail weight 0.275±0.049 kg, legweight 2.231±0.107 kg, back-loinweight 1.057±0.074 kg, foreleg the weight was 1.662±0.090 kg, the neck weight was 0.548±0.046 kg, the skirt weight was 1.311±0.106 kg and the carcass yield was 42.42±1.270.