Table 5
Means and standard errors (M ± SE) of live animal performance and carcass characteristics of prime lamb progeny from different sire breeds

	Dorset	White Suffolk	Merino	P value
Initial BW (kg)	37.3 ± 1.1	36.7 ± 0.6	31.8 ± 0.9	0.0002***
Final BW (kg)	46.8 ± 1.6	45.7 ± 1.0	40.1 ± 1.1	0.0016**
Total weight gain (kg)	9.5 ± 1.0	9.0 ± 0.7	8.3 ± 0.7	0.4418^ns
Av. Daily gain (g)	194.5 ± 20.3	183.7 ± 14.5	169.0 ± 14.8	0.4418^ns
Pre-slaughter weight (kg)^c	47.0 ± 1.6	45.7 ± 1.0	42.2 ± 1.78	0.0540^ns
HCW (kg)^d	22.0 ± 0.9^a	21.3 ± 0.8^a	16.5 ± 0.9^b	0.0030**
CCW (kg)^d	21.7 ± 0.9^a	21.0 ± 0.8^a	16.2 ± 0.9^b	0.0031**
Dressing percentage (%)	46.7 ± 0.8^a	46.3 ± 1.2^a	39.2 ± 1.7^b	0.0078*
Fat thickness (mm)	4.7 ± 0.4^a	4.3 ± 0.3^a	3.3 ± 0.5^b	0.0467*
Body wall thickness (mm)	16.1 ± 1.1	15.6 ± 0.7	13.8 ± 1.2	0.2648^ns
GR fat score (1–5)	3.7 ± 0.3	3.6 ± 0.2	3.1 ± 0.3	0.3013^ns
Yield grade	2.3 ± 0.5^a	2.1 ± 0.1^a	1.7 ± 0.8^b	0.0470*
Rib eye area (cm²)	15.6 ± 0.5^a	15.5 ± 0.5^a	12.3 ± 0.8^b	0.0022**
BCTRC %^e	48.7 ± 0.2	49.0 ± 0.2	49.0 ± 0.3	0.5937^ns
OTH^f	109.8 ± 4.2^a	106.3 ± 3.9^a	82.5 ± 4.6^b	0.0030**