Determination of economic values for some important traits in Moghani sheep

Abstract

Determination of economic values for important traits is one of the most important priorities in animal breeding. Therefore, a deterministic bio-economic model was used to estimate economic values for litter size, pre-weaning survival, post-weaning survival, ewe survival, birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight, mature ewe live weight, dressing percentage, conception rate and wool weight in Moghani sheep breeding station herd located in Jafarabad-Moghan, including 432 ewe and 52 rams. Sensitivity analysis of economic values to price levels of input and output was also carried out. Sensitivity of EVs for traits was proportional to 20% changes in prices of meat, wool, roughage and concentrate, because they are the most affective factors in system profit under the studied condition. Results of sensitivity analysis showed that relative economic values of traits except for birth weight and wool weight had the highest sensitivity to change in meat price, which was the most important component of profit. The most mportant trait in this study was litter size with relative economic value to wool weight of 76.36 followed by dressing percentage and ewe survival with relative economic values of 2.43 and 1.54, respectively. The lowest relative economic value was found for birth weight ( −0.08). In this system, the economic values of all traits were positive except for birth weight, indicating positive effects of these traits on system profitability. Generally, traits which increased income and decreased costs through increase in extra lamb selling had higher economic values.