Body weight evolution of Tsigai and tsigai and Berrichon du Cher crossbred lambs

Abstract

The Berrichon du Cher breed is a French meat sheep breed, specialized in production of high-quality meat. The demand of the EU market for the sheep meat is focused, especially in the western countries, on the high quality cuts of the sheep meat and the demand very low on unspecialized meat breeds like the local Tsigai breed. In order to improve the production efficiency Berrichon du Cher rams were crossed with Tsigai ewes. The lambs were compared with purebred igai lambs to evaluate daily weight gain from birth to 120 days. The daily weight gain was superior in the hybrid lambs compared with purebred lambs.