The study was conducted at Sirinka Agriculture Research Center to phenotypically characterize local, pure Dorper and their F1 crossbred sheep populations. The animals were grouped into three age groups based on 0 pair of permanent incisor (0PPI), 1 pair of permanent incisors (1PPI) and 2 and above pairs of permanent incisors (≥2PPI). A total of 17 linear measurements, body weight and scrotal circumference for males were taken from each animal Body weight and most of the linear measurements were significantly (P<0.01) affected by breed, age and sex effects. The mean value of body weight for local, crossbred and pure Dorper sheep was 28.47±0.8 kg, 35.94±0.53 kg and 46.65 kg, respectively. Positive and highly significant (P<0.01) correlations were observed between body weight and most of the body measurements for all the three sheep breeds. The result of multiple linear regression analysis showed that chest girth explained more variation than any other measurements in both ewes (52%) and rams (78%) of local sheep, ewes (59%) and rams (86%) of crossbred sheep. The results showed that chest girth (86%) and punch girth (70%) explained more variation than any other measurements in rams and ewes, respectively for pure Dorper. However, from this study pure Dorper and crossbred sheep exhibit meat type traits.

Keywords: Crossbred, Dorper, Phenotype, Meat type, Structural index