Abstract :
Determination of economic values for important traits is one of the most important priorities
in animal breeding. Therefore, a deterministic bio-economic model was used to
estimate economic values for litter size, pre-weaning survival, post-weaning survival, ewe
survival, birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight, mature ewe live weight, dressing
percentage, conception rate and wool weight in Moghani sheep breeding station herd
located in Jafarabad-Moghan, including 432 ewe and 52 rams. Sensitivity analysis of economic
values to price levels of input and output was also carried out. Sensitivity of EVs for
traits was proportional to
±20% changes in prices of meat, wool, roughage and concentrate,
because they are the most affective factors in system profit under the studied condition.
Results of sensitivity analysis showed that relative economic values of traits except for birth
weight and wool weight had the highest sensitivity to change in meat price, which was the
most important component of profit. The most important trait in this study was litter size
with relative economic value to wool weight of 76.36 followed by dressing percentage
and ewe survival with relative economic values of 2.43 and 1.54, respectively. The lowest
relative economic value was found for birth weight (−0.08). In this system, the economic
values of all traits were positive except for birth weight, indicating positive effects of these
traits on system profitability. Generally, traits which increased income and decreased costs
through increase in extra lamb selling had higher economic values
