Carcass characteristics and body components of Santa Inês lambs in feedlot fed on different levels of forage cactus meal

Dannylo Oliveira de Sousa,José Morais Pereira Filho,Marcílio Fontes Cezar,Maria das Graças Gomes Cunha,Wandrick Hauss de Sousa,José Rômulo Soares dos Santos

doi:10.1590/s1516-35982011001000030

Dannylo Oliveira de Sousa, José Morais Pereira Filho

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s1516-35982011001000030

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the replacement of a ground corn diet by a forage cactus meal diet on the carcass characteristics and body components of Santa Inês lambs finished in feedlot. This study was carried out at Estação Experimental de Pendência, belonging to Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária da Paraíba S.A. (EMEPA-PB). Forty Santa Inês male lambs in feedlot were used in the experiment. Treatments were randomly assigned to the animals according to a completely randomized design, with four treatments, which consisted of growing replacement levels of ground corn by forage cactus meal: 0, 33, 66 and 100% of substitution and ten replications (lambs). Animals were slaughtered, and the following characteristics were evaluated: body weight, empty body weight, hot carcass weight, cold carcass weight, non-carcass components (NCC), hot carcass yield, cold carcass yield, biological yield, revenue of non components of carcass, revenues of non-carcass components, relative weight and relative value of the commercial cuts, viscera and organs' yield. Averages were submitted to analysis of variance and regression analyses at a 5% level of probability. The replacement levels of ground corn by forage cactus meal had no influence on biological yield, revenue of the non components of carcass, relative weight and relative value of the prime and choice cuts or on the relative weight of viscera and organs. The replacement of ground corn by forage cactus meal, on the ration given to Santa Ines lambs in feedlot does not impact the biological yield, relative weight and relative value of prime and choice cuts or the relative weight of viscera and other organs.

Highlights

With the purpose of obtaining the best quality carcasses with maximum yield, the slaughter of lambs at a live weight of 35 kg has been recommended, which induces feedlot finishing and the use of concentrate in the feed
Non-carcass components represented nearly 50% compared with the empty body weight (EBW), which is consistent with Carvalho et al (2005), who affirmed that non-carcass components might account for more than 50% of the live weight of the animals, and this percentage is influenced by factors such as diet and other parameters responsible for the variation in the live weight of animals
28.43% of edible non-carcass components were obtained, which is very similar to the 26.94% obtained by Medeiros et al (2008), who assessed the effects of concentrate levels on non-carcass components of Morada Nova ovines in feedlot

Summary

Introduction

With the purpose of obtaining the best quality carcasses with maximum yield, the slaughter of lambs at a live weight of 35 kg has been recommended, which induces feedlot finishing and the use of concentrate in the feed. The forage cactus meal is a cactus plant considered a vital forage plant in the semiarid region, in the period of rain shortage (Muller et al, 1994), because of its characteristics similar to those of an energy concentrate, such as higher percentage of propionate in the rumen, high level of soluble carbohydrates and high digestibility of dry matter (Ben Salem et al, 1996; Lopes, 2007; Wanderley et al, 2002). Ruminants should not be fed only this diet because of its laxative effect, high water content and low the objective of the present study was to assess the effects of the replacement of ground corn by forage cactus meal on the characteristics of the carcass and on non-carcass components of Santa Inês lambs in feedlot

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