Desempenho materno-filial de ovinos da raça Ideal submetidos à tosquia pré-parto.

Abstract

The increase in consumption and valorization of sheep meat is turning this ranching activity increasingly attractive and profitable. The search for technologies to reduce the loss of lambs by neonatal death is an alternative to increase production levels in sheep raising. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of shearing in pregnant ewe on the birth and weaning weights of lambs, as well as on the production and composition of sheep milk. The study was conducted at the Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria - INIA, La Estanzuela, Uruguay (34° 19 S 57 40 N). Twenty Ideal breed ewes, single bearers were allocated to two treatments based on expected day of parturition, body weight and body condition. Ten ewes were shorn at 53 days of gestation and ten ewes were kept unshorn during pregnancy. Milking started seven days after parturition and was repeated weekly during 15 weeks, until weaning. Milk production of ewes shorn during gestation was 22.2% higher compared to unshorn ewes but did not change its percentage of solids. At birth lambs of shorn ewes were 1.4 kg heavier and at weaning this superiority reached 4.5 kg. The pre-parturition shearing at 53 days of gestation is a management tool that can improve the productive characteristics of sheep breed ideal.