Carcass characteristics, cut dressing and body constituents were determined according to the different dietary energy levels. Eighteen Santa Inês sheep (averaging live weight of 20 kg and six months old) were full fed diets with 2.43, 2.66 and 2.88 Mcal of metabolizable energy (ME)/kg of dry matter (DM). The animals were slaughtered when reached 33 kg live weight (LW). A randomized block design, with six replicates, was used. Linear decreasing effect was observed for loss in fast (LF) and linear […]

Twenty-one lambs were used, nine of the Bergamácia and 12 Santa Inês breed, were confined individually for 75 days, and fed diets containing 24% of swine wastes, in the form of biju (obtained by the scratching and sweeping of the floor of the growth and termination stalls) or DSW – dry sifted wastes (constituted by the solid part of the material contained of the water of wash of the stalls, obtained through sieves of fine mesh). There was no diet […]

The effect of slaughter age on non-carcass components and carcass characteristics was evaluated in 35 Suffolk lambs slaughtered at average age of 90, 130 or 170 days, fed corn silage and concentrate (19.6% CP). As the slaughter age increased, animal live weight and carcass weight linearly increased, and some non-carcass components as blood, head, legs and full viscera percentage linearly decreased, leading to a linear increase in carcass yield. As the slaughter age increase, it was observed change in the […]

ABSTRACT – Sixty-nine lambs from the crossbreeding Corriedale or Polwarth ewes with Suffolk, Ile de France rams or from the same ewe breed were used to evaluate their performance and carcass characteristics. Lambs were maintained under grazing until weaning time (60 days), then were confined for 90 days and fed corn silage and concentrate based diet. A completely randomized design in a factorial arrangement was used. The use of meat type rams on fine wool ewes did not affect lamb […]