Carcass traits and meat cuts of lambs receiving increasing levels of concentrate

Abstract

The use of concentrate for sheep grazing Buffel grass may improve the productive performance and carcass traits of animals. The objective of present trial was to evaluate the productive performance and carcass traits of sheep grazing Buffel grass receiving different concentrate levels. The concentrate levels used were: 0; 0.33; 0.66 and 1.0% of dry matter in relation to body weight. Forty lambs were used, ten animals by treatments, with 16.5 ± 2.0 kg of initial body weight and 20.97 kg final body weight, distributed in four groups. The experimental design was a completely randomized with ten replicates by treatments. The concentrate levels did not influence the cold and hot carcass weight. However, the increasing levels of concentrate promoted higher cold and hot carcass yield. Blood, head, hide, heart, lung, kidney and liver (non carcass components) weights and proportion of slaughtered body weight (SBW) and leg, shoulder, brisket, rib, neck and loin weights (commercial meat cuts) were not affected by increasing levels of concentrate. Full intestine in proportion of SBW was lower with the increase of concentrate levels, while the brisket’s weight was higher with increase of concentrate.