Economic Values for Production Traits for Different Sheep Breeds in Kosovo

Abstract

Generally, all traits of economic importance should be included in the breeding goal of livestock breeding programmes. The main aim of this study was to examine economic values for a combination of dairy and meat traits of the dual purpose Bardhoka (BAR), Balusha (BAL), Sharri (SHA) and Kosova (KOS) sheep breeds in Kosovo. The underlying herd model is based on a deterministic approach considering a sheep flock with milk production, lamb fattening and replacement stock. In order to examine the economic impact for different sheep breeds, the production traits considered were milk (milk yield) and fattening (daily gain). For each lactation cycle among the breeds the main revenues resulted from selling milk (€ 61.82/46.03/26.37/27.22) and fattened lambs (€ 34.06/39.88/35.42/33.92) for BAR/BAL/SHA/KOS, respectively. For BAR and BAL the economic value per average ewe place and year was € 37.7 for both breeds, while for SHA and KOS it was € 35.1 and € 32.5, respectively. For lamb fattening, daily gain was found to have the highest economic value at € 7.00 for BAL, SHA and KOS, while for BAR it was € 6.67. The relative economic values for milk yield and daily gain for BAR, BAL, SHA and KOS were 84.96:15.04, 84.42:15.58, 83.45:16.55, and 82.36:17.64, respectively.