EFFECT OF WEIGHT AT FATTENING ON CARCASS TRAITS OF AWASSI LAMBS

Abstract

This study was conducted to study the effect of different initial body weights of Awassi Lambs used for fattening and its outcome on growth and some carcass characteristics, 15 Awassi lambs were divided into 3 groups which differed in their initial body weight, first group was (22.00 ± 0.22 kg), second group was (29.80 ± 1.21kg), and the third group was (34.20 ± 0.66 kg). All lambs were fed the same ration which consisted of barley, wheat bran and soybean meal, the ration had 14.39 % crude protein and 2499 Kcal/kg of metabolized energy. Results showed a significant decrease (P< 0.05) in the average daily weight gain and total average weight gain in the third group which had the higher initial body weight when compared with first group which had the lowest initial body weight, the results also showed that using lambs with low initial weights in the first group caused a significant decrease (P<0.05) in carcass weight as compared with the second and third groups which had lambs fattened with higher initial weights 18.76 kg , 24.63 kg and 25.25 kg for the three groups respectively. Total fat percentage of the carcass decreased significantly in the second group 15.83%