Abstract
Simple SummaryThe increasing demand for better sensory characteristics, nutritional quality, and functional attributes of meat products that are beneficial to human health is stimulating the consumer market. Diet and breed directly affect ruminant carcass traits and meat quality. Therefore, this research aimed to evaluate the effects of silage diet and breed on growth performance, carcass traits, and meat quality of lambs. The lamb breed influenced fewer variables of growth performance and carcass characteristics compared to diet, and the lambs fed the sweet sorghum silage diet had higher nutritional quality meat than lambs fed the whole-crop corn silage diet.Diet and breed directly affect ruminant carcass traits and meat quality. Therefore, this research aimed to evaluate the effect of silage diet and breed on growth performance, carcass traits, and meat quality of lambs. A total of 28, 3–4 months old female lambs consisting of 14 Dorper lambs (DP) and 14 Thin-tailed Han lambs (TH) were allocated in a 2 × 2 factorial design and offered two experimental diets (sweet sorghum silage: SS; whole-crop corn silage: WS) for 90 days. Lambs fed the WS diet had a higher growth performance (p < 0.01), intramuscular fat content (p < 0.05), and bright meat color (p < 0.01) than lambs fed the SS diet. The lambs fed the SS diet showed a higher polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content than the lambs fed the WS diet (p < 0.01); there was no significant difference in growth performance and carcass characteristics between DP and TH lambs (p > 0.05). The meat of the DP lambs showed lower values of initial pH, shear force, lightness (L*), redness (a*), and saturated fatty acid (SFA) content (p < 0.05). The lamb breed influenced fewer variables of growth performance and carcass characteristics compared to the diet. The lambs fed the SS diet had higher nutritional quality meat than lambs fed the WS diet.
Highlights
The increasing demand for better sensory characteristics, better nutritional quality, and functional attributes of meat products that are beneficial to human health is stimulating the consumer market
Some sweet sorghum varieties are characterized by moderate levels of phenolics, which has a positive effect on the efficiency of ruminant protein metabolism resulting in increased its performance, as well as improving ruminant milk and meat fatty acid composition [9,10,11]
The silage, OM, CP, and starch intake of the lambs fed with the sorghum silage (SS) diet was lower than the whole-crop corn silage (WS) diet, but the acid detergent lignin (ADL), Total phenolics (TP), and condensed tannins (CT) intake was higher
Summary
The increasing demand for better sensory characteristics, better nutritional quality, and functional attributes of meat products that are beneficial to human health is stimulating the consumer market. Sweet sorghum is an auspicious forage in the arid, semi-arid, and high salinity areas due to its high water-use efficiency, drought tolerance [6], high biomass yield (20–30 dry tons/ha), rapid growth rate, and phenolic compounds [7,8]. Some sweet sorghum varieties are characterized by moderate levels of phenolics, which has a positive effect on the efficiency of ruminant protein metabolism (e.g., a decrease in NH3–N losses) resulting in increased its performance, as well as improving ruminant milk and meat fatty acid composition [9,10,11]. Experiments conducted on lactating cows have proven that the sweet sorghum silage (SS) can be a total replacement for whole-crop corn silage (WS) without undesirable effects on animal performance, but with positive effects on milk quality [12,13]. To the best of our knowledge, similar comparative information for SS and WS based diets are few, and no known research data are available on the effect of SS on meat quality of lambs, which is the subject of this study
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