This work was undertaken to compare and quantify live body weight, at slaughter, and its components of Polwarth and Polwarth x Texel (ram) lambs and hoggets. Fifty-nine lambs (116 days old) were slaughtered. From that, forty were Polwarth (21 males and 19 females) and nineteen were Polwarth x Texel cresses (7 males and 12 females). Also, twenty-four hoggets (450 days old) were slaughtered. Fourteen hoggets were Polwarth and ten Polwarth x Texel cresses. The animals were raised under range conditions on native pasture, in seuthem Brazil (Pelotas-RS), and castrated at 30 days eld. There were no significant diferences, in absolute values, for body weight and its components, among purebred lambs and crosses; for hoggets, the crosses have shown higher weights (live body weight at slaughter, warm and cool carcass, head, lungs plus trachea, liver, kidney plus pelvic fat, and kidney). In percentage values, significant effects were observed among rebred and crosses only with lambs for hide and lungs plus trachea and sex effect for legs and liver. The results have shown that the crossbreeding among Polwarth (ewes) and Texel, for the increment of meat production under range conditions, is possible at a later age and weight (hoggets) but not for lambs.
sheep; meat production; crossbreeding
