Effect of the Length of Fattening Period on Gain and Carcass Traits in Sheep

In Egypt there are almost two million head of sheep, of wich one third is raised in the north western coastal desert. The main income of raising sheep in Egypt comes from lamb production, while the wool clip represents secondary income. In the desert where sheep are raised on poor natural pasture with small amounts of supplementary feeding such as concentrates, hay, and straw, It may be suitable to maintain flocks of nature sheep and lambs in store condition, this condition, however, would not be suitable tomaintain high growth rates and body gain for the lambs produced before and during fattening. It is a comon practice that some of the desert lambs are marketed and fattened away from desert.However, a well - defined system of fattening seems to be lacking and initiating such a system would be of special importance. This study was therefore initiated to investigate the offoct of the longth of fattoning poriod on gain and carcass traits for desort lambs.