Fifteen young rams from each Ossimi and Saidi sheep were distri buted into three groups to study the effect of dietary protein level on growth rate and on carcass composition.Body weight gain, car cass weight, and amount of lean, fat and bone in the carcass were also determined. The results indicated that animals of both breeds fed either 7 or 24% D.P. gained less weight than when 14% D.P. ration was fed. Dressing percentage of Ossimi ranged between 54.23 to 55.32 and those of Saidi sheep ranged between 53.02 to 56.21%. Saidi carcasses has the higher percentages of lean and bone than those of Ossimi ones. On the other hand, Ossimi carcasses has more fatty tissues than Saidi carcasses. Statistical analysis indicated that there were no significant differences, either between the two breeds or between treatments in body gain and carcass com position. A suitable level of D.P. for feeding yearling rams of Os simi and Saidi sheep was 14%.
Results illustrated that there was a significant positive correla tion between carcass weight and amount of fat in it (r=0.6755 for Ossimi and 0.6814 for Saidi). Highly significant coefficients of correlation and regression were found between width at chest before slaughtering and body and carcass weight