Effects of the sexual condition of texel x corriedale male lambs on wool production and quality

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of male lambs sexual condition on production and quality of wool. The lambs were kept under extensive system in natural pasture of the Pampa biome in Rio Grande do Sul State. The experiment was carried out with forty-nine male lambs, crossbred Corriedale x Texel. Animals were divided into three groups according to sexual condition: non-castrated (n=16), castrated (n=17) or cryptorchidism-induced (n=16). Lambs were sheared with 160 days of age. The analysis of variance was used as statistical test to evaluate the effect of sexual condition. The growth and length of wool fiber did not differ significantly between groups (P>0.05). The dirty fleece weight was not different between non-castrated and castrated male lambs (P>0.05), however both groups showed higher weight of dirty fleece compared with the cryptorchidism-induced group (P<0.05). There were no significant differences between groups regarding to the wool qualitative characteristics as fiber diameter average and coefficient of variation, and proportion of finer and coarser points along the wool fiber (P>0.05). It is concluded that the sexual condition of male lambs does not affect the wool qualitative characteristics. Cryptorchidism-induced lambs has lower dirty fleece weight than other groups.