Table 6. Carcass characteristics of crossbred lambs consuming either a forage or grain based diet while in confinement or on wheat stubble fields in yr 2¹⁾

Item	Treatment^2,3)				SEM	p-value
	Confinement⁴⁾		Field⁵⁾			Model	Location⁶⁾	Feed⁷⁾	Location × Feed
	CALF	CBAR	FALF	FBAR		Model	Location⁶⁾	Feed⁷⁾	Location × Feed
Carcass weight (kg)	24.5	23.5	25.6	24.4	1.01	0.54	0.33	0.28	0.90
Dressing percent	49.71	50.85	51.49	50.31	0.95	0.59	0.52	0.98	0.23
Back fat thickness (cm)	0.25	0.24	0.33	0.32	0.04	0.33	0.07	0.79	0.94
Ribeye area (cm²)	5.91	5.73	6.25	6.32	0.20	0.15	0.03	0.79	0.56
Leg score⁸⁾	419^ab	406^a	438^a	431^a	8.92	0.09	0.02	0.30	0.73
Conformation⁸⁾	419^ab	406^a	438^a	431^a	8.92	0.09	0.02	0.30	0.73
Flank streaking⁹⁾	259	289	324	288	35.39	0.61	0.35	0.92	0.33
Quality grade⁸⁾	403	419	443	413	21.65	0.59	0.42	0.72	0.28
WBSF (kg)	4.2	4.3	4.1	3.7	0.48	0.76	0.45	0.67	0.56

Start date for all treatments was September 4th; End date for field and confinement treatments was November 4th.
Pen is the experimental unit, 3 sheep per replicate confinement, 6 sheep per replicate field; six replicates per treatment.
Diets were provided to allow for ad libitum intake.
CALF: pellet containing 71% alfalfa, 18% barley, 5% molasses, and 6% vitamin/mineral package; CBAR: pellet containing 60% barley, 26% alfalfa, 4% molasses, 2.5% soybean-hi pro, and 7.5% vitamin/mineral package.
FALF: field fed pellet containing 71% alfalfa, 18% barley, 5% molasses, and 6% vitamin/mineral package; FBAR: field fed pellet containing 60% barley, 26% alfalfa, 4% molasses, 2.5% soybean-hi pro, and 7.5% vitamin/mineral package.
Location, confinement or field finish.
Feed, alfalfa or barley pellets.
325, Good minus; 350, Good; 37, Good plus; 425, Choice minus; 450, Choice; 475, Choice plus; 525, Prime minus; 550, Prime; 575, Prime plus.
100 to 199, Practically Devoid; 200 to 299, Traces; 300 to 399, Slight; 400 to 499, Small.
Least Square Means within a row with different superscripts differ (p < 0.10).
WBSF, Warner-Bratzler shear force.