Growth performance, carcass characteristics, post-slaughtering and haematological parameters of Kivircik and Karacabey Merino male lambs in conventional and organic management systems were compared. The animals which were weaned at 7 weeks of age were divided into Kivircik conventional, Kivircik organic (KO), Karacabey Merino conventional and Karacabey Merino organic (MO) groups containing 12 lambs each. Fattening was ended when lambs attained 35 kg of live weight. The time to attain the determined fattening weight was significantly different among the groups, and Merino lambs having higher live weight gain were earlier than Kivircik lambs (p < 0.05). Overall conventional (CG) and organic group lambs were also compared. Live weight gain, intra-abdominal fat amount, external fat thickness and visceral organ weight were significantly higher in CG lambs (p < 0.05). Higher haematocrit and erythrocyte counts were obtained with the CG group (p < 0.05), whilst triglyceride, total plasma cholesterol and lipoprotein (HDL, LDL, VLDL) levels between groups were not significant. Pneumonia was the unique infection, with an incidence of 50% (six lambs) and 16.6% (two lambs) for MO and KO animals, respectively. The mortality rate was 16.6% (two lambs) for MO group, whilst no mortality was recorded for KO group animals. The present study has shown that although Karacabey merino lambs had higher growth performance compared to Kivircik lambs, organically fattened lambs in whole exhibited inferior growth performance. Lower infection and mortality observed with Kivircik lambs suggested that they could be more resistant to infections and outdoor environmental conditions.

Thirty-six Merino-Kıvırcık crossbred male lambs were utilized to evaluate the influence of two levels of dried stoned olive pomace. Lambs were blocked by initial body weights (BW, 20.4 kg) and randomly distributed into three groups. While one group received commercial concentrates without olive pomace, the second and third groups received an experimental diet containing 10% olive pomace and 20% olive pomace, respectively. They were fed for 49 days. The animals' BW and feed consumption were recorded weekly and biweekly, respectively. The lambs were slaughtered at the end of the trial. The carcass cut weights were recorded and a sample of LD muscle was collected for fat content and composition. Overall, there were no differences in slaughter characteristics, carcass measurements, or cut weights among the treatments (P > 0.05). The fatty acids (FAs) profile of LD muscle showed that 20% olive pomace fed animals had lower pentadecanoic and erucic acids, while they had higher oleic acid content (P < 0.05). This represents a favorable change in regard to human dietary guidelines. Total saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated FAs were not affected by treatments. There were minor differences in organoleptic properties among the treatments (P > 0.05). Meat rich in oleic acid fared best with panelists, which was found in the 20% olive pomace fed lambs.

The ac susceptibility bridge technique is applied to the measurement of a long spin-lattice relaxation time associated with the magnetic anomaly which has been reported for FeC13 graphite intercalation compounds at 1.75 K. Investigations of this relaxation mechanism show that the specific heat of the spin system at low temperatures contributes to an anomaly in the relaxation time near the temperature of the magnetic anomaly. Our results indicate that the graphite layers between the magnetic intercalant layers act as nonmagnetic spacing layers allowing the c-axis spin-spin coupling to be varied.

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This study was carried out to determine the effect of silage type, silage consumption, birth type (single or twin) and birth weight on live weight at the end of fattening in Kıvırcık lambs. In the experiment, 40 male Kıvırcık lambs aged 2.5-3 months were used and the animals were fattened for 56 days. During the fattening period, the lambs fed with 5 different types of silage (100% sunflower silage, 75% sunflower + 25% corn silage, 50% sunflower + 50% corn silage, 25% sunflower + 75% corn silage, 100% corn silage) pure and mixed in different proportions and concentrate feed. Data on fattening results were analyzed with MARS and Bagging MARS algorithms. The main objective of this research is to predict live weight of lambs using Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) and Bagging MARS algorithms as a nonparametric regression technique. Live weight value was modeled based on factors such as birth type, birth weight, silage type and silage consumption. Correlation coefficient (r), determination coefficient (R2), Adjust R2, Root-mean-square error (RMSE), standard deviation ratio (SD ratio), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), mean absolute deviation (MAD), and Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) values of MARS algorithm predicting live weight were as follows: 0.9986, 0.997, 0.977, 0.142, 0.052, 0.2389, 0.086 and -88 respectively. Like statistics for Bagging MARS algorithm were 0.754, 0.556, 0.453, 1.8, 0.666, 3.96, 1.47 and 115 respectively. It was observed that MARS and Bagging MARS algorithms have revealed correct results according to goodness of fit statistics. However, it has been revealed that MARS algorithm gives better results in live weight modeling.