C17: Meat (mutton) type sheep Flashcards
What are mutton breeds used for?
→ Primarily for meat production
what is the wool quality of mutton breeds?
medium / poor quality
what type of animal is mutton from?
→ the meat of a female ewe) or castrated male (wether) sheep having more than 2 permanent incisors in wear.
–> Mutton meat from a sheep = over 2 years old & has less tender flesh.
–> the darker the color of meat, the older the animal.
what is lamb meat like compared to mutton?
–> Younger lambs are smaller and more tender.
–> lamb meat will be pale pink, while regular lamb = pinkish-red.
how to tell age of a sheep?
TEETH
birth to 1 year: 8 milk teeth incisors
1 - 1.5 years: 2 incisors, 6 milk teeth
1.5 - 2 years: 4 incisors, 4 milk teeth
2 - 2.5 yeasr: 6 incisors, 2 milk teeth
2+ years: 8 incisors
what are the 3 groups of mutton breeds?
English long-wool mutton breeds
English short-wool mutton breeds
Other mutton breeds
Description and examples of English Long—Wool Mutton Breeds
White faced, long & varied wool quality, big-bodied, polled, late maturity.
Rams used for terminal crossings & for improvement of other breeds.
E.g Corrriedale crossbred (e.g. Leicester + Lincoln + Merino).
Leicester (bluefaced),
Lincoln,
Romney,
Cotswold,
Cheviot,
Wensleydale
Description and examples of English Short—Wool Mutton Breeds
- Short legged, downy, medium quality wool, hornless, dark face & legs, breed out of season, prolific.
South down,
Suffolk,
Wiltshire,
Hampshire down,
Oxford Down,
Shropshire Down
Description and examples of Other Mutton Breeds
- German: Black(brown) faced mutton sheep & white faced landsheep.
- French: Ile de France (Leicester + Rambouillet), Berrichon du Cher, Charollais, Contenin, Boullonnais, Bleu du Maine.
- Holland Texel Sheep (Texel-Island, Romney Marsch/Leicester/Lincoln/South Down)
🡪 “four-shank” mutton sheep and “lawn-mower”
Other breeds: Alp Sheep, Tsigaia in Hungary.
Crossbred meat-wool breed:
(Corriedale-Li x Ramb, Polwarth, Columba-Li x Ramb, Panama-Li x Ramb, Targhee-Li x Ram)
what are the important production traits of sheep?
slaughtered at constant age.
- Carcass weight (day of age, slaughtered rate %, 40-50 %, 0.1-0.9).
- Carcass quality (colour, meat tenderness, flavour, palatability).
- Degree of fatness, back fat thickness over loin eye (23 %), fat around kidneys (0.2-0.7).
- Fat (tallow), bone, lean % (0.2-0.7).
- Valuable ratio, primal cuts (60%): shoulder,
rack, loin, and legs:
– Loin (and back) ratio (wide, muscular loin, loin eye area, body length, marbled intramuscular fat: marbling).
– Carcass: neck, fore shank, shoulder, breast, rack, loin, flank, legs (extreme muscling, muscular hypertrophy).
is the meat-producing ability in paternal breeds high?
what are the traits?
yes, heritability of meat production is high.
Traits:
1. fattening ability
2. carcass traits
3. meat properties.
what is an ideal type meat breed example?
why is it ideal?
what: Suffolk
why:
good length –> grows into a heavier carcass without over fats.
a long well msucled loin.
narrow wedged shoulder –> easy lambing
well sprung ribs –> better constitution.
well filled HQ and legs.
Breeding for meat production: when does planning begin?
Farmers aiming to produce lamb for the Easter market must start planning this in July.
Sponging and mating in July/August.
Flushing July - September.
Lambing in January.
Breeding for meat production: when does planning begin?
Farmers aiming to produce lamb for the Easter market must start planning this in July.
Sponging and mating in July/August.
Flushing July - September.
Lambing in January.
name a prolific sheep breed
(mentioned more for fine wool than meat)
- Booroola strain of the Merino sheep breed has a high rate of multiple births.
- Booroola’s prolificacy = The Booroola strain has a high rate of multiple births.
- It was studied extensively in New Zealand by researchers who provided one of the 1st examples of the practical application of gene mapping in sheep → by mapping the Booroola gene to chromosome 6.
