Master the growth law of sheep for fattening

Master the law of growth and development of fattening sheep, according to the growth and development characteristics of different stages of fattening sheep, reasonable arrangement of production, in order to achieve the goal of less input and more output, and finally make more money by raising sheep.

Weight gain

The weight growth of fattening sheep is mainly affected by many factors, including age, sex, breed type, feeding level and so on.

The effect of age on growth rate. In the fetal period, the growth rate was slow in the first 3 months, accelerated after 3 months, and the fastest before delivery. After birth, under the condition of scientific feeding and management, the lamb grows rapidly in the early stage, especially before the age of 4 months, and its body weight is 6-10 times of the birth weight, and then slows down obviously. Therefore, in production, full nutrition should be given in the stage of rapid growth, so as to give full play to its characteristics of fast weight gain and high feed utilization rate. The fattening of lambs is produced by taking advantage of its early fast growth.

Effect of feeding level on growth rate. The feeding level has a direct effect on the production speed of fattening sheep, the feeding level is high, the growth speed is fast, and the feeding level is low and the growth speed is slow. If at some stage of the growth and development of fattening sheep. The growth is slow due to lack of nutrition, and once it returns to normal feeding, its growth rate is faster than that of ordinary sheep. After a period of feeding, the body weight can still return to the normal level, which is the "compensatory growth" of fattening sheep. However, it should be noted that compensatory growth can not be carried out under any circumstances, and if the growth rate is seriously affected in the early stages of life, it is difficult to compensate for growth in the next stage; it is also difficult to compensate for growth to normal weight after a long period of hindrance.

The growth of body tissue

Huh? the growth of sheep tissue directly affects its body weight, appearance and meat quality. The growth of body tissue of fattening sheep of different age, sex and breed is also different.

Age: the newborn lamb has a large proportion of bone in the carcass, and the development of muscle and fat is poor. In the young stage, the bones of the extremities grew faster, and then the growth intensity of the axial bones increased. With the increase of age, the muscle growth rate of sheep is first fast and then slow, the adipose tissue is from slow to fast, and the growth rate of bones remains stable. The percentage of each tissue to the carcass varies greatly during the growth process. The proportion of muscle in carcass first increases and then decreases, the proportion of fat continues to increase, and the proportion of bone continues to decrease. The older the age, the higher the proportion of fat.

Type: the muscle and fat growth rate of fattening sheep of early-maturing breeds is faster than that of late-maturing breeds, while fat deposits of late-maturing breeds begin to accumulate only after the completion of bone and muscle growth.

Sex: in the same breed, the ram has the fastest muscle growth rate and the slowest fat growth rate; the fat deposition is the fastest in the ewe, the second in the ewe and the slowest in the ram.