One of the factors in sheep breeding that affects the increase in wool and meat productivity of sheep
The article presents data on one of the elements of sheep rearing that significantly increases the profitability of sheep breeding in the steppe and semi-desert zones of the North Caucasus. This is late-pregnancy shearing of sheep three weeks before lambing (in February-March), which made it relatively easy to solve the problem of “labor force” and increase amount of wool shorn and its physical and technological qualities in ewes, which increased its selling price. The absence of coat in the spring period after late-pregnancy shearing encourages ewes to move more actively on the pasture and consume more feed, which contributes to increasing their milk production and obtaining more viable and productive offspring. This is the birth of lambs with a greater live weight and density of hair follicles, which subsequently provides higher wool and meat productivity. When animals are slaughtered at 9 months of age, the fleshing index of young animals from early shorn mothers exceeded their herdmates by 9.2%. Late-pregnancy shearing of ewes helps to strengthen the body defenses, increases its ability to influence environmental factors. The offspring obtained from these ewes are also characterized by higher resistance. In the ewes of the experimental group, a year after the late-pregnancy shearing, the wool productivity in pure fiber exceeded the control group by 18.6%, and the yield of pure wool by 6.9 absolute percent. Calculations have shown that the economic effect from one shorn ewe before lambing exceeded the traditional terms of shearing after lambing by 25.9%.