Table 5. Carcass characteristics of crossbred lambs consuming either a forage or grain based diet while in confinement or on wheat stubble fields in yr 11)
Item | Treatment2,3) | SEM | p-value |
Confinement4) | Field5) | Model | Location6) | Feed7) | Location × Feed |
CALF | CBAR | FALF | FBAR |
Carcass weight (kg) | 25.1 | 24.2 | 25.9 | 26.6 | 1.13 | 0.46 | 0.16 | 0.90 | 0.44 |
Dressing percent | 49.18b | 46.45b | 51.92ab | 52.85a | 1.54 | 0.02 | 0.01 | 0.54 | 0.22 |
Back fat thickness (cm) | 0.34 | 0.38 | 0.43 | 0.28 | 0.07 | 0.56 | 0.94 | 0.49 | 0.21 |
Ribeye area (cm2) | 5.30b | 5.33b | 6.03a | 6.32a | 0.21 | < 0.01 | < 0.01 | 0.45 | 0.55 |
Leg score8) | 406 | 413 | 434 | 422 | 8.56 | 0.13 | 0.04 | 0.72 | 0.28 |
Conformation8) | 413 | 419 | 434 | 413 | 8.08 | 0.20 | 0.34 | 0.34 | 0.09 |
Flank streaking9) | 294 | 237 | 256 | 259 | 23.99 | 0.39 | 0.73 | 0.25 | 0.21 |
Quality grade8) | 425 | 407 | 406 | 409 | 15.08 | 0.77 | 0.57 | 0.61 | 0.47 |
WBSF (kg) | 3.8a | 2.7b | 3.8a | 3.1b | 0.30 | 0.03 | 0.56 | < 0.01 | 0.53 |
Start date for all treatments was September 26th; End date for field and confinement treatments was November 25th.
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; 375, 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.