Use of environmental and genetics descriptors to integrate herds of sheep

Abstract

Assuming that each region and/or country represents a unique productive environment, it is important to define that there are diverse productive environments that may exist within a country or even in the same region. The objective of the study was to identify and group sheep herds in the municipality of Temoaya, State of Mexico, Mexico, to allow better planning and distribution of resources (subsidies) aimed at increasing the productivity of the different processes in the sheep herds. The study examined 23 sheep herds using an applied integral quiz (64 descriptors of environmental and genetic type), which was initially subjected to a discriminant statistical analysis, then a multivariate statistical analysis, resulting in the establishment of 15 principal components (PC), that explained 94.25% of the differences between the herds. The variables that constituted the PC presented significant correlations among them (P <0.05). Finally, clusters were analyzed, integrating the 23 herds into 5 groups or clusters (CL) with similar environments. The clusters allowed the identification of diverse productive products of the sheep sector in each region. The use of this methodology is a reliable tool for the structural solutions that currently limit the good sustainable development of sheep production.