Abstract :
Economic values were estimated for meat sheep raised in a pasture based production
system in semi-arid Brazil using data on the Morada Nova hair sheep breed. The traits
considered were lambing percentage (LP), litter size (LS), lamb mortality (LM), yearling
mortality (YM), ewe and ram mortality (AM), female slaughter weight (FSW), male slaughter
weight (MSW), ewe adult weight (EAW), ram adult weight (RW), carcass yield (CY),
number of lambings per year (NLY), age at first lambing (AFL) and number of anthelminthic
doses used per year (AC). The economic values were estimated using the profit equation
(profit = revenue−costs) after a one unit and 1% increase of each trait, keeping all other
traits at their mean value. With a 1% increase in the traits, the economic values (US$ per
ewe per year) for LP, LM, MSW, CY and NLY were 0.781, −0.138, 0.416, 0.827 and 0.781,
respectively. The production system with Morada Nova sheep grazing native “caatinga”
pasture in Brazilian Northeast, exclusively for meat production, is profitable when taking
into account all costs of production, including that of family labour. Carcass yield was shown
to be an important selection objective. As it is expressed when the animal is slaughtered,
further studies need to be carried out with this population to aid in the choice of appropriate
selection criteria for the improvement of this trait.
