Abstract
Abstract Little is known about effective feed formulation in meat goat diets. With the demand of goat meat rising, producers are looking for cost-efficient yet effective diet formulations to produce quality goat meat. The objective of this project was to evaluate carcass characteristics of Boer-influenced goats after being fed corn dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) as a replacement for soybean meal (SBM). It was hypothesized that high quantities of DDGS would decrease carcass quality, especially carcass yield. To test this hypothesis, 48 Boer-influenced goats (avg. weight 62.2lbs) were split evenly into 16 pens (3 goats/pen) and were fed an acclimation diet for 14 days. Pens were allocated to one of four treatments: 1) 0% SBM replaced by DDGS; 2) 33% SBM replaced by DDGS; 3) 66% SBM replaced by DDGS; and 4) 100% SBM replaced by DDGS. Diets were formulated to be isocaloric and isonitrogenous. Pens of goats were provided a self-feeder containing their respective treatments for 47 d. After the challenge was completed, the lightest and heaviest goat from each pen was then harvested in a USDA-inspected abattoir and carcass data collected. Data were analyzed using the GLIMMIX procedure of SAS v9.4. Differences were considered significant if P < 0.05. Dietary treatment did not impact (P > 0.05) any measured carcass trait, including hot carcass weight (P = 0.67), percent carcass yield (P = 0.79), loin eye area (P = 0.51), loin eye depth (P = 0.98), backfat depth (P = 0.50), and body wall thickness (P = 0.65). These results yield a disproven hypothesis, but show that DDGS may be an economical feed ingredient for meat goat diets without negatively impacting carcass characteristics.
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