Growth performance and carcass characteristics of Awassi, Morkaraman and Tushin lambs grazed on pasture and supported with concentrate M. Macit * , N. Esenbuga, M. Karaoglu Department of Animal Science, Ataturk University, College of Agriculture, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey Accepted 14 April 2002 Abstract GrowthandslaughterandcarcasstraitsofAwassi(A),Morkaraman(M)andTushin(T)lambsweanedat2.5monthsofagewere evaluated.Thelambswerefedaconcentratemixtureandallowedtograzefor70days.Mlambsshowedthehighestperformancein dailyweightgainandtheamountofconcentrateconsumedinadditiontograzingonpastureperunitbodyweightgain.Theeffects of breed and sex of lamb on daily weight gain on pasture were signi®cant and highly signi®cant, respectively. Male lambs were superiortofemalelambswithrespecttodailyweightgain.HotcarcassofMlambswasheavierthanthoseofAandTlambs.Mhad higher dressing percentage and larger M.longissimus dorsi area than those of A and T lambs. The proportions of wholesale cuts such as loin, sirloin, rib and hindshank were affected by breed. T lambs showed better performance than M lambs in proportion of loin cuts. In addition, the proportion of sirloin and rib cuts forA lambs was found to be higher than that of M lambs. M lambs had signi®cantly higher proportion of hindshank than those of A and T lambs. # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Fat-tailed Awassi; Morkaraman and Tushin lambs; Growth; Semi-intensive conditions; Carcass characteristics 1. Introduction Approximately 87% of Turkey's sheep population (30.3 million heads) are fat-tailed breeds. Sheep meat (133 000 t) is an important contribution to red meat production amounting to 26% of the total meat produc- tion (512 000 t) of Turkey (Anonymous, 2000). The present meat production performances of native sheep breedsarefarfromoptimal.Highergrowthrateoflambs and better feed conversion ef®ciency are among the factors affecting economical sheep meat production. Growth performance characteristics of Awassi (A) Morkaraman (M) and Tushin (T) lambs and their crosses under semi-intensive management at this loca- tion were studied by Macit et al. (2001). Physical, chemical and organoleptic properties of ram lamb carcasses from A, M and T lambs were investigated by Esenbuga et al. (2001). Such information is essen- tial to evaluate production characteristics of indigen- ous Turkish breeds. The objective of the study was evaluate growth performance, slaughter and carcass characteristics of Turkish pure breeds raised under semi-intensive conditions. 2. Materials and methods The experiment was conducted at the Research and Application Farm of College of Agriculture, Ataturk University, Erzurum. A total of 158 fat-tailed Small Ruminant Research 44 (2002) 241±246 * Corresponding author. Tel.: 90-442-2312573; fax: 90-442-2183647. E-mail address: mmacit@atauni.edu.tr (M. Macit). 0921-4488/02/$ ± see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0921-4488(02)00077-9