Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance, ingestive behavior and carcass traits of crossbred Dorper x Santa Ines lambs fed rations containing soybean cake. Twenty-four lambs (4 months of age and 24.3 ± 3.1 kg BW) were used in a completely randomized design with four treatments and six replicates. Treatments were the inclusion of 50, 100 or 150 g kg -1 of soybean cake in the ration, on a DM basis, and a control diet without this ingredient. Rations were offered ad libitum for 75 days and the lambs were slaughtered at 35 to 40 kg BW. Dry matter intake reduced linearly and the average daily gain had a quadratic response to the soybean cake levels, also decreasing with the addition of this ingredient. The time spent feeding increased and the idle time decreased linearly with the soybean cake levels, whereas the time spent in rumination was not affected. Hot and cold carcass weights decreased linearly with the addition of this ingredient. The addition of 50 to 150 g kg DM -1 of soybean cake to the ration for lambs is not recommended due to reduced animal performance, which may compromise the profitability of sheep farmers.
Highlights
The production of protein for human consumption has been a major concern for world authorities due to the growing world population, especially in developing countries
Sheep production increased 3.4 times more than cattle production (4.52 vs. 1.34%) in Brazil between 2014 and 2015 (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística [IBGE], 2015), which currently has a herd of approximately 17.98 million heads, distributed mainly in the northeastern (64.2%) and southern (23.7%) regions (IBGE, 2017)
The consumption of sheep meat in Brazil is still low, there is a strong expectation that it will increase since the importation of this product has grown in recent years, with 80% of the total imported volume coming from Uruguay (Viana, Moraes, & Dorneles, 2015)
Summary
The production of protein for human consumption has been a major concern for world authorities due to the growing world population, especially in developing countries. It is important to encourage the production of good quality and low cost food, mainly for the poor population. In this sense, sheep production has great productive potential, but it is still not very common in Brazil, compared to beef and dairy cattle production. The consumption of sheep meat in Brazil is still low, there is a strong expectation that it will increase since the importation of this product has grown in recent years, with 80% of the total imported volume coming from Uruguay (Viana, Moraes, & Dorneles, 2015). This indicates that the Brazilian sheep meat production chain needs to be adjusted to improve production rates in order to meet its domestic demand
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