Productivity and carcass characteristics of lambs fed fibrous agricultural wastes to substitute grass

Abstract

Background and Aim: Grass is often scarce for ruminants during the dry season in Indonesia; thus agricultural by-products are widely used as a substitute for grass. This study aimed to determine the effect of replacing Napier grass (NG) with agricultural by-products on the productivity and carcass characteristics of lambs. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four 3-month-old male lambs with initial body weights of 13.26±1.29 kg (coefficient of variation=9.73%) were allocated into a completely randomized design with four treatments and six replications. The treatments included: NG=100% NG; corn cobs (CCs)=50% NG and 50% CCs; bagasse (BG)=50% NG and 50% BG; and peanut shells (PSs)=50% NG and 50% PSs. All treatment diets were pelleted and consisted of 40% fibrous feed and 60% concentrate feed, and contained 10.36-11.65% crude protein and 55.47-57.31% total digestible nutrients. Parameters observed included dry matter intake (DMI), dry matter digestibility, body weight gain (BWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), feed cost per gain (FC/G), and carcass characteristics. Results: Lambs fed the PSs diet had the highest (p<0.05) DMI (781 g/d), digestibility, and body weight gain (92.5 g/d; p<0.05). The FCR of the PSs diet (9.13) was similar to NG. The FC/G of the PSs diet (IDR 23,541/kg) was the lowest of all diets. The BG diet had the lowest (p<0.05) digestibility, body weight gain (54.4 g/d), and the highest (13.53) FCR. No significant differences (p>0.05) were found in the carcass or meat characteristics of any diets. The averages of slaughter weight, carcass weight, and carcass percentage were 20.03 kg, 8.02 kg, and 40.0%, respectively. The average meat bone ratio was 3.67. Conclusion: It was concluded that agricultural wastes could be used as an alternative to NG at the level of 50% in the diet of lambs without a negative effect on production performance and carcass traits.

Effect of feeding level on growth rate, carcass characteristics and meat quality of thin tailed lambs

“…The results of the current study was same with Prima et al (2019) which showed that Thintailed lambs with 25.76 kg of slaughter weight had 6,700 g of meat weight. The meat weight in this study was higher than that of Purbowati et al (2021) which showed that Thin-Tailed lambs with 20.03 of slaughter weight had meat weight of 4,500 g. The results showed that the higher the level of feed, the lower the bone weight (P<0.01). Lambs fed T3 had the lowest bone weight (P<0.01) in comparison to that of T2 and that of T1.…”

“…It was due to the lambs of T3 had a lot of nutrients to digest and could be metabolized and then deposited as subcutaneous fat and intermuscular fat. Study of Phrache et al (2022) and Purbowati et al (2021) showed that fat was deposited in most tissues in the body and in four parts, namely abdominal, subcutaneous, intermuscular and intramuscular. Paredes et al (2013) and Santos et al (2018) stated that the growth rate of fat tissue is still low at birth then slowly increases at first and increases more rapidly when the lambs reach maturity.…”

“…Previous study by Prima et al (2019) showed that carcass production of Thin-Tailed lambs with slaughter weight of 25,76 kg was 47,67%. The study of Purbowati et al (2021) showed that Thin-Tailed lambs with slaughter weight of 20,03 kg had 40.0% of carcass production.…”

Novel polymorphisms of dopa decarboxylase gene and their association with lamb quality traits in Indonesian sheep

“…Dressing percentage is highly variable in small ruminants, ranging from 36% to about 60%, and depends on numerous factors, such as age, weight at slaughter, housing system, breed, and sex. Purbowati et al [ 21 ] reported that the average dressing percentage of thin-tailed sheep in Indonesia was 40%. Lamb quality parameters were significantly associated (p≤ 0.05) with pH value.…”

Determination of free radical scavenging activity, phenolic and flavonoid content of seven corn cultivars from the Southwest Maluku District, Indonesia

“…Because of this diversity of corn cultivars, it has been successfully used as ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF) aimed at improving the nutrition of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) in children under five years old in Indonesia (Fetriyuna et al 2021). Also, the agricultural waste from corn has been used in the country to increase productivity and carcass characteristics of lambs (Purbowati et al 2021) and cattle (Tahuk et al 2020) fed with this fibrous agricultural waste as a substitute for regular grass. Furthermore, the use of corn to produce biodiesel for the United States market has caused changes in land use for cultivating corn in Malaysia and Indonesia, compared to other vegetables like soy (Taheripour and Tyner 2020).…”