PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS YIELD OF FINISHING LAMBS FED DIETS WITH SAFFLOWER MEAL

Abstract Text:

Studies about oilseed meals are important due to its relationship with fatty acids content and nutritive value of meat. So far, information is scarce about levels of fatty acids in tissues of lambs fed safflower meals. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of a concentrated diet (30% sorghum, 30% corn grain, 15% alfalfa hay; 14.5% CP and 2.98 Mcal EM) plus three levels (treatments) of safflower meal: 0% (control), 10% and 15%, fed to 24 Dorper lambs (22.18 ± 2.6 live BW) housed in metabolic cages during 60 days. The experimental design was completely randomized with 3 treatments and 8 replications. Data were analyzed using GLM procedure (SAS v 9.2) and treatments means were compared with Tukey test (P≤0.05). Variables evaluated were daily dry matter intake (DDMI, g), average daily gain (ADG, g), feed conversion (FC), dry matter digestibility (DMD, %) and carcass yield (CY, %). Safflower meal (0, 10 and 15%) changed (P≤0.05) ADG (328^b, 367^a, 365^a g), DDMI (1534^b, 1621^a, 1573^b g) and CY (47.8^b, 51.0^a, 51.2%^a); however, it did not affect (P> 0.05) FC (4.68, 4.42, 4.30 g) neither DMD (65.87, 66.74, 64.89%). These results allow concluding that safflower meal increased average daily gain and carcass yield in finishing lambs.

Keywords: Lambs, Safflower meal, Performance and carcass yield.