A note on commercial crossing of Bulgarian finewool ewes with rams of English short-wool breeds

Abstract

SUMMARYDobruja Finewool ewes were mated to two rams of each of the Clun Forest, Hampshire, Suffolk and Oxford Down breeds as well as to rams of their own breed. The crossbred and purebred lambs were compared in terms of growth, food consumption and carcass attributes. The crossbred lambs of Hampshire, Suffolk and Oxford Down breeding were superior to the purebred control lambs on all counts while Clun Forest crossbred lambs were superior to controls only in carcass attributes and the time taken to reach slaughter weight but not in efficiency of conversion.