Indicators of the internal organs weight of purebred and crossbred young sheep with different methods of fattening

The article presents the results of studies of the indicators of live weight and the internal organs weight of purebred Khalkha and crossbreed Khalkha-Suffolk rams, depending on the method of their fattening. Experimental studies were conducted in the Selenga aimak of Mongolia and in the laboratories of the Mongolian University of Natural Sciences. According to the results of the research, it was revealed that purebred Khalkha rams were inferior to Khalkha-Suffolk crossbreed rams in terms of live weight at birth and at the age of 8 months. When fed with rapeseed cake, purebred Khalkha rams had an advantage over half-breeds in terms of absolute heart weight by 0.04 kg and digestive system weight by 0.06 kg, and in terms of pre-slaughter weight by 0.22 and 1.29%, respectively. At the same time, Khalkha-Suffolk crossbreed rams outperformed purebred animals in terms of absolute lung weight by 0.19 kg and relative weight by 0.19%

Integrating herder observations, meteorological data and remote sensing to understand climate change patterns and impacts across an eco-climatic gradient in Mongolia

Includes bibliographical references.Presented at the Building resilience of Mongolian rangelands: a trans-disciplinary research conference held on June 9-10, 2015 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.Mongolia has one of the strongest climate warming signals on Earth, and over 40% of the human population depends directly or indirectly on pastoral livestock production for their livelihoods. Thus, climate-driven changes in rangeland production will likely have a major effect on pastoral livelihoods. We examined patterns of climate change and rangeland production over 20 years in three ecological zones based on meteorological records, remote sensing and herder observations. We found the strongest trends in both instrument records and herder observations in the steppe zone, where summers are getting hotter and drier, winters colder, and rangeland production is declining. Instrument records and herder observations were most consistently aligned for total annual rainfall, and consensus among herders was greatest for changes in rainfall and production and lowest for temperature changes. We found more differences in herder observations between neighboring soums within the same ecozone than expected, suggesting the need for more fine-scale instrument observations to detect fine-scale patterns of change that herders observe