Increasing demands for healthy and eco-friendly products and processes concerned with animal well-being have stimulated consumer interest in pasture finishing systems for lambs (Jacques, Berthiaume, & Cinq-Marsa, 2011). This feeding system affects animal growth rate, carcass weight and yield, muscle: fat ratio, and meat lipid profile, which can reflect in sensorial characteristics such as flavor, odor, and softness (Carrasco et al., 2009). Blackburn, Snowder, and Glimp (1991) reported lower amounts of fat in the meat of exclusively pasture-raised lambs compared to animals submitted to concentrate-based diets, being an attractive attribute for consumers. However, the meat industry is interested in heavy carcasses of young animals with good musculature, providing good cut yield and a minimum fat layer to protect carcasses while in cold storage. Tropical pasture exclusive feeding, such as Brachiaria spp.

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We hypothesize that lambs fed diets with different lipids sources from oilseeds would similar performance but fatty acids profile of meat superior to those fed with conventional diets. We evaluated the effects of inclusion of oilseeds on the ingestive behaviour, performance, carcass trait and meat quality in feedlot lambs. Three isonitrogenous (18.31% crude protein) diets were evaluated, where one diet was the standard (control), and the others two diets contained soybean and cottonseed. Fifteen Texel lambs, weighting 28.5 ± 1.65 kg were distributed in a completely randomized design by 56 days. Animals fed soybean diet demonstrated greater final body weight when compared to animals fed cottonseed diet and standard diet. The inclusion of cottonseed provided lower average daily gain and total weight gain. Ingestive behaviour of the animals fed diets with grains resulted in greater rumination time. Lambs fed cottonseed diet spent greater time during rumination and presented greater number of chews/day. The hot carcass and cold carcass weight presented lower values in animals fed cottonseeds diet. There was no significant difference in meat for marbling, maturity, fat texture and shear force. Meat from animals fed soybean diet had highest fat content. There was a diet effect for fatty acids composition in the meat. Meat of lambs treated with soybean have greater amounts for fatty acids mostly the unsaturated ones, related to the decrease in cholesterol levels, and lower risk of cardiovascular diseases, thus, lambs fed soybean enrich meat produced with fatty acids that benefit human health.