The Relative Superiority of Milk ProductioD of Priangan Cross with St.Croix and Moulton Charollais Sheep.

Abstract

Priangan sheep is one of some native sheep that had been well known to the people of West Java. This sheep have some advantages including their ability to produce multiple birth, reach sexual maturity faster and resistant to internal parasite. However, this sheep have also some disadvantages including low milk production, high bawl mortality and low mature weight Crossbreeding is one way to improve the genetic qnality of this sheep. The objective of this study is to evalnate whether the Priangan, St.Croix, and Moulton Charollais cross are superior in milk production when compared to Priangan sheep. This study was conducted at small rwninant experimental station of Research Institute for Animal production from June to August 2002. The superiority of the crossed sheep was detennined by subtracting the average milk production of the crossed sheep and Priangan sheep and then divided the values by the average milk production of Priangan sheep. The data had heen corrected by parity and type of birth. The General Linear model of SAS were used to calculate the least square means. The result shows that the superiority of Moulton Charollais-Priangan cross (MP), St.Croix-Priangan cross (HP), StCroix-Moulton Charollais crossing (MHP) for milk production were 59.48 (11%), 55.89 (5%) and 54.66 I (2%), respectively when compared to Priangan. However, the Moulton Charollais-St.Croix-Priangan cross (MHP) had lower milk production (44.87 I or -16%) when comprued to Priangan. Key words: milk production, St. Croix, Moulton Charollais, Priangan, crossing