Performance and carcass and meat characteristics of lambs fed with different types of grain

• Grant number: 09/07136-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2009
• End date: October 31, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Nutrition and Feeding
• Principal Investigator: Gabriela Aferri
• Grantee: Gabriela Aferri
• Host Institution: Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios (APTA). Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this work is to evaluate the performance and quantitative and qualitative carcass and meat characteristics of sheep fed high concentrate diets with different types of grain. Twenty-four crossbred lambs ½ Dorper ½ Santa Inês, will be fed one of four different diets as follow: COG - ground corn based diet; COW - whole corn based diet; SOR - whole sorghum base diet; PMI - pearl millet replacing 40% whole corn grain in COW diet. Feed and orts will be weighed daily for dry matter intake determinations. Animals will be weighed each 21 days without feed restriction, and Longissimus muscle area and backfat thickness will be evaluated by ultrasound. After 65 days of feeding an in vivo digestibility trial will be carried out by total feces collection during seven days using bags. Then animals will be harvested and hot carcass weight, dressing percentage and linear carcass measurements will be determined. Three samples of Longissimus muscle will be taken for color, shear force and water loss determinations. (AU)