Effects of Environmental Factors Growth Traits of Akkaraman Sheep in Çankırı Province

Abstract

Small ruminants are important contributors of food supply chains throughout the world. They are known for their high adaptive capacity under various environmental conditions such as meagre diet and arid landscapes. Compared to large ruminants, sheep and goats require less input of feed, water and labour, which provides the species to be spread out around various environments (Joy et al., 2020). Among those indigenous breeds have critical role in sustainable production and food security for various reasons such as genetic variability and high adaptation (Bingol, 2016). Nutrition of a large fraction of human population heavily depend on animal-sourced products such as meat and milk (Gül et al., 2020; Mondal & Reddy, 2017). Turkey -with 55 millions of small ruminants of which majority are indigenous breedsis among the largest producers of small ruminants around the world (TUIK, 2020). There are a wide range of indigenous fatand thin-tailed sheep breeds in Turkey (Aksoy et al., 2019; Yilmaz & Wilson, 2012). As a fat-tailed and combined production purpose breed, Akkaraman has a large share of sheep population in Turkey with low productivity (Ünal, 2002; Yalcin, 1986). Even though the number of farm animals is excessively high in Turkey, low productivity leads to the reduced amount of meat production per person. Therefore, increasing growth and productivity of sheep have a great importance for sustainable food supply and food security in Turkey (Şenyüz, 2020; Yardımcı & Özbeyaz, 2001). Similar to the other indigenous sheep, Akkaraman also suffered from the lack a systematic breeding programme until recently, with majority of the breed is still not subject to a genetic selection system. Therefore, farmers select their rams and ewes according to the morphological observations (Ceyhan et al., 2019). As a significant cultural component, sheep farming is majorly implemented as outdoor production based on meagre pasture. However, this approach is compromised in terms of identifying the genetic potential of animals. Recent studies showed high Effects of Environmental Factors Growth Traits of Akkaraman Sheep in Çankırı Province