Pre-weaning growth in wool sheep housed under colombian tropical conditions

Abstract

Introduction: Growth is a feature of economic relevance for sheep production systems, because allow to establish appropriate feeding management and optimum slaughter age. However, little information has been available on sheep growth housed under tropical conditions. This, the study aim is to describe pre-weaning growth of wool sheep in Colombian tropical conditions. Metodology: 52 crossbred lambs (Ile de France X Romney Marsh x Moro Colombiano) were weighed at birth and the weekly until 12 week of age. The growth was determinate using lineal and exponential growth models. The goodness of fit of the models was tested by mean squared prediction error and coefficient of determination (R2), using SAS university® statistical package. Results: A higher coefficient of determination and a lower mean squared prediction error, showed the best good fit for the lineal growth model. Conclusions: The best model that describes the growth in wool sheep housed under high altitude tropical conditions was the lineal model.