Sheep fattening requires understanding the growth patterns of sheep

Understand the growth and development patterns of fattening sheep, and according to the growth and development characteristics of fattening sheep at different stages, arrange production reasonably to achieve the goal of less input and more output, and ultimately make more money from raising sheep.

Weight gain

The weight gain of fattening sheep is affected by many factors, mainly including age, sex, breed type, feeding level, etc.

The effect of age on growth rate. During the fetal period, the growth rate is slow in the first 3 months, accelerates after 3 months, and is fastest before birth. After lambs are born, under scientific feeding and management conditions, early growth and development are very fast, especially before 4 months of age when the growth rate is fastest, and their body weight is 6~10 times the birth weight, after which it slows down significantly. Therefore, in production, full nutrition should be provided during the fast-growing stage to give play to their characteristics of fast weight gain and high feed utilization. Lamb fattening makes use of their characteristic of fast early growth for production.

The effect of feeding level on growth rate. The feeding level has a direct impact on the production speed of fattening sheep. A high feeding level means a fast growth rate; a low feeding level means a slow growth rate. If at some stage of the growth and development of fattening sheep, growth is slow due to insufficient nutrition, once normal feeding is restored, their growth rate will be faster than that of ordinary sheep. After a period of feeding, body weight can still return to normal levels. This is the "compensatory growth" of fattening sheep. However, it should be noted that compensatory growth cannot occur under all circumstances. If the growth rate is severely affected early in life, it is very difficult to carry out compensatory growth in the next stage; long-term stunted development also makes it very difficult to compensate for growth to normal body weight.

Growth of body tissues

? The growth of sheep body tissues directly affects their body weight, appearance and meat quality. Fattening sheep of different ages, sexes and breeds also differ in the growth of their body tissues.

Age: In newborn lambs, bones account for a large proportion of the carcass, while muscle, fat and other tissues are relatively poorly developed. In the young stage, the bones of the limbs grow faster, and afterward the growth intensity of the axial skeleton increases. With increasing age, the muscle growth rate of sheep is first fast and then slow, adipose tissue goes from slow to fast, while the growth rate of bone remains steady throughout. The percentage of each body tissue in the carcass changes greatly during the growth process. The proportion of muscle in the carcass first increases and then decreases, the proportion of fat continues to increase, and the proportion of bone continues to decrease. The older the sheep, the higher the proportion of fat.

Type: The muscle and fat growth rates of early-maturing breeds of fattening sheep are faster than those of late-maturing breeds, so they can be fattened and marketed early; while in late-maturing breeds, fat only begins to be deposited after bone and muscle growth is completed.

Sex: Within the same breed, rams have the fastest muscle growth rate and the slowest fat growth rate; fat deposition is fastest in wethers, followed by ewes, and slowest in rams.