Effect of slaughter weight and feeding system on some meat Quality and palatability of hamdani lamb carcasses

Abstract

This study was conducted on hamdani lambs to compare two systems of feeding , The first system was ad libitum feeding on concentrate ration and the second system was grazing on pasture with supplementation of concentrate ration as in the first system at 1.5 % of animal body weight in order to reach two slaughter weight 35kg and 45kg . The results of this study showed significant increase( p< 0.05 ) in muscular and bone tissue percentages as well as in moisture, protein and ash percentages in lamb carcasses with tail fat for the second system , while increasing slaughter weight from 35kg to 45kg caused significant decreas( p< 0.05 ) in muscular and bone tissue also moisture percentage and significant increase ( p< 0.05 ) in fat tissue percentage and fat percentage in lamb cacasses with tail fat . Study did not show any affectivness in palatability of meat by the factors above .So we sow some improvement in meat quality characters in the second feeding system and no benefit in meat quality by increasing slaughter weight for 45kg .