Abstract
This study aimed to calculate the economic value (EV) of reproductive and growth traits for Yiling sheep. A bio-economic model was developed to assess the economic value of litter size (LS), litter size at weaning (LSW), age at first lambing (AFL), lambing interval (LI), birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), and 6-month body weight (6MW). The sensitivity of the economic value of traits to changes in market prices was also analyzed. In this study, the trait with the highest EV was LSW (427.97 ¥), followed by LS (419.96 ¥), BW (52.13 ¥), 6MW (14.46 ¥), WW (11.03 ¥), AFL (−0.51 ¥), and LI (−9.09 ¥). LS was the most important trait in the production system with a relative economic weight of 22.81%, followed by 6MW and LSW with relative economic weights of 18.98% and 19.01%, respectively. All traits assessed, except AFL and LI, had positive economic values, indicating that genetic improvement of these traits would have a positive impact on profitability. The results of the sensitivity analysis showed that the economic value of AFL was not sensitive to price changes. All growth traits were unaffected by price changes in labor and medical costs. In addition, the LS, LSW, LI, WW, and 6MW were sensitive to changes in liveweight and feed prices. Generally, as feed prices increased, the economic value of all traits except LI and BW decreased. Except for LI and BW, the economic value of all traits increased due to the rise in liveweight prices. This suggested that liveweight and feed prices significantly affect the profitability of the production system.
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Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Hubei Zhiqinghe Animal Husbandry Co. Ltd. and Anhui Anxin Animal Husbandry Development Co. Ltd for providing data. We gratefully thank all the people whose hard work in the Laboratory of Small Ruminant Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Huazhong Agricultural University, China, contributed to this work. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their critical review.
Funding
This work was supported by the Scientific and Technological Innovation 2030 – major agricultural biological breeding project (2022ZD0401403), the Xinjiang Key Research and Development Program (20223101456) “Tianchi Talent” Distinguished Expert (2023-25), the China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA (CARS-38), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2662020DKPY017).
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Conceptualization: Xunping Jiang and Guiqiong Liu; methodology: Jihua Li, Xunping Jiang, and Guiqiong Liu; investigation: Jihua Li and Xunping Jiang; resources: Guiqiong Liu; supervision: Xunping Jiang; writing – original draft: Xunping Jiang and Jihua Li; writing – review and editing: all authors.
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Li, J., Liu, G., Jiang, X. et al. Economic values of reproductive and growth traits in Chinese Yiling sheep. Trop Anim Health Prod 55, 400 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-023-03810-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-023-03810-1