Obiettivo Sheep production systems in the "Less Favoured Areas" of the Community generally produce lightweight carcasses of variable quality, often as a by-product to milk production. In many areas market specifications for sheep meat are vague and marketing structures weak. The breeds of sheep associated with these systems are generally small and nutritional regimes under which they are kept during growth are often variable and limited. The project aims to characterize a sample of sheep breeds indigenous to the LFAs of Great Britain, Greece and North West Spain with regard to their genetic potential for meat production and how this can be regulated by nutritional manipulation. The objective of this project was to examine, within the environmental constraints of the LFA regions, the key parameters of sheep production and marketing wuth a view to the development of production strategies aimed at improving the competitiveness of sheep meat producers in these less favoured areas (LFAs). The regions studied were the LFAs of the United Kingdom, mainland Greece and north west Spain.Experiments were carried out to characterise the growth pattern and carcass development of sheep bred to each region and to confirm their adherence to genetic scaling rules relating to mature size. Embryo transfer was used as a means of rapidly bringing together the necessary genetic material and allowed the effects of nutritional quality on growth to be evaluated across a wide range of genotypes.Simultaneously a series of economic evaluations of market conditions, consumer preferences and marketing opportunities was carried out in each country. The two major factors influencing the development of the markets in all the countries are the evolution of the single market towards supermarket and hypermarket retailing. Traditional LFA marketing structures are poorly placed to take advantage of these market developments, consequently new strategies were evaluated.Timing of supplies has emerged as the single most important factor of lamb production and marketing. In the past, the various environmental influences on the timing of LFA production have constrained the oppportunities for producers to adopt proactive marketing strategies in relation to the pattern of demand over time. The project has demonstated that LFA lamb production systems can be adapted to make the best use of available resources, in sympathy with local environmental conditions, to produce lambs of the required quality for alternate markets at critical times of the season or over an extended time period.Embryo transfer will be used to bring together breeds from the co-operating regions in a single environment for study. This will create a reference to allow across-region comparisons to be made with greater confidence. These studies will be used to deve lop sustainable pastoral based production systems producing sheep meat of a more consistent specification in line with market demand across the Community. Campo scientifico medical and health sciencesclinical medicinegynaecologyreproductive medicinemedical and health sciencesclinical medicineembryology Programma(i) FP2-CAMAR - Research and technological development programme (EEC) in the field of competitiveness of agriculture and management of agricultural resources, 1989-1993 Argomento(i) Data not available Invito a presentare proposte Data not available Meccanismo di finanziamento Data not available Coordinatore SCOTTISH AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE Contributo UE Nessun dato Indirizzo BUSH ESTATE EH26 0QE PENICUIK Regno Unito Mostra sulla mappa Costo totale Nessun dato Partecipanti (2) Classifica in ordine alfabetico Classifica per Contributo UE Espandi tutto Riduci tutto ARISTOTELIAN UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI Grecia Contributo UE Nessun dato Indirizzo 54006 THESSALONIKI Mostra sulla mappa Costo totale Nessun dato XUNTA DE GALICIA - CONSELLERIA DE AGRICULTURA Spagna Contributo UE Nessun dato Indirizzo APARTADO 10 15080 LA CORUNA Mostra sulla mappa Costo totale Nessun dato