Performance, Carcass Traits and Meat Quality of Crossbred Lambs Fed Whole Cottonseed Levels

Abstract

Byproduct as whole cottonseed (WCS) and soybean hulls are quite used in finishing diets to feedlot lambs and WCS is a potential source to be included in lambs diet when prices are advantageous. The most part of the studies with WCS is used as a replacement of cereals as corn. Thus, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of replacing a fibrous byproduct (soybean hulls) with increasing levels of WCS (0, 10 and 20%) on the performance, carcass traits and meat quality of feedlot lambs. Thirty crossbred lambs (15 males and 15 females, 20±1.6 kg) were fed 1 of 3 high concentration diets: CTL (without WCS), WCS10 (with 10% WCS), and WCS20 (with 20% WCS) in a block design (sex) for 56 days. Feeding 10 or 20% WCS significantly (P=0.013) improved the feed conversion without affecting the final weight gain, average daily gain or dry matter intake in kg/d. However, the DMI (in %) of live weight was affected by treatments (P<0.0001): lambs fed the CTL and the WCS10 diet consumed more DMI than the lambs from WCS20 diet (4.19, 4.03 and 3.6%, respectively). The hot carcass weight, dressing percentage, longissimus muscle area and fat thickness were not affected by the WCS levels. The shear force and meat colour were similar among treatments. These results suggested that fattening lambs may benefit from an increase in feed efficiency from 10% WCS up to 20% without negatively impacting carcass and meat quality.