INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP INDICES OF VELVET ANTLER PRODUCTION OF MARALS FOR THE PERIOD OF THEIR ECONOMIC USE
Maral breeding is a promising direction of animal hus-bandry in the Altai Region and the Republic of Altai. Breed-ing of highly productive maral stags is based on the proper organization of breeding work which is not possible without an accurate evaluation of individual and group indices of velvet antler weight. In this regard, the research goal is to study individual and group indices of velvet antler produc-tion of marals for the period of their economic use depend-ing on the age. It was found that the velvet antler weight increased by 6.3 kg over the entire study period, and there was a decreasing tendency of the productive index in thir-teen-year-old marals by 800 g. It was found that in the maral stag herd in 2021, the maral stag born in 2008 with velvet antler weight of 18.8 kg became the record holder. The main criteria for culling were decreased velvet antler production and fatness; the age of those animals was from eleven to fourteen years. In this regard, it was found that individual highly productive thirteen-year-old maral stags could consistently produce high-weight velvet antlers dur-ing the period of their economic use. To improve the quali-tative composition of marals, at breeding time, it is neces-sary to evaluate and select high-productive stags from six to twelve years old individually in dynamics and cull low-productive ones regardless of age.