Growth performance and carcass characteristics of south african mutton merino fed diets with different levels of macadamia oil cake or baobab seed cake

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of supplementing 10% or 15% of baobab seed cake (BSC) or macadamia oil cake (MOC) in fattening diets for lambs on feed intake, growth performance and carcass characteristics. Thirty-two lambs aged between 150 and 180 days were randomly allocated to 4 diets (10% MOC; 15% MOC; 10% BSC and 15% BSC diets) in an experiment arranged as a 2x2 factorial design and sex as a block. The results showed that there were significant protein source and inclusion level interactions on average daily feed intake, average daily gain, and total weight gain, warm and cold carcass mass. Males were significantly superior in all parameters except for feed conversion ratio, dressing percentage and rib-eye area. It was concluded that 10% MOC and 15% BSC can be incorporated in diets for fattening of growing South African Mutton Merino lambs without compromising on their growth performance and carcass characteristics.