Coat cover characteristics of sheep in North Sumatera, Indonesia

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the coat cover characteristics of sheep kept by farmers in several districts in North Sumatera, as a sign of adaptability to the local environment. A total of 190 sheep (local and introduced) of both sexes and different age (10-14) were used for the study from 5 districts of Deli Serdang, Labuan Batu Utara, Asahan, Serdang Berdagai and Batubara in North Sumatera. The data were analysed using general linear model with the independent variables was location of the study, farmers involve in the study, breed of sheep, sex, age and the dependent variables were body weight and coat quality. The study showed that the average coat color of the sheep in the study was mostly white (95.7%). Most of the sheep have solid coat cover (61.1%) and small percentage with patches (30%) and spotted (8.9%). The average body weight of the sheep was 23.2 kg with significant effect (P<0.05) of districts, farmers, sex, age and wool density. The average of product between coat cover and coat density was 14.1 with significant effect (P<0.05) of districts, farmers and age of sheep. Therefore it can be concluded that sheep in this study mostly has white coat color, with area cover approximately of 4.2 and coarse quality of wool with average score of 3.1.