Addition of yellow grease to grain-based diets and taiwan grass on growth performance of finishing hair lambs

Abstract

Growing lambs were used to evaluate the effects of dietary inclusion of yellow grease (YG) on performance and carcass yield. Sixteen male hair lambs were assigned randomly to one of two diets with 0 or 30 g YG/kg DM and similar energy and protein content. Lambs underwent adaptation to diets for 12 d and fasting for 75 d. Dietary inclusion of YG did not affect growth performance or feed intake. Feed conversion, hot and cold carcass weight and yield improved by YG. The dietary addition of 30 g YG/kg DM allowed reducing the proportion of dietary grain without causing harmful effects on growth performance and feed intake but improving carcass dressing in finishing hair lambs. Given that its inclusion in grain-based diets improved carcass weights and yield. We can conclude that YG would be an efficient alternative energy source for hair lambs under tropical conditions. Nevertheless, further research is required to determine the effect of YG on meat and carcass quality.

Keywords

• Carcass yield
• Dietary oil
• Growing assay
• Pelibuey lambs