Desempenho e característica de carcaças de cordeiros pantaneiros abatidos com diferentes pesos

Abstract

This experiment aims to evaluate the performance and carcass characteristics of Pantaneiro lambs, finished in confinements, slaughtered at 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 kg. It was used 45 not castrated Pantaneiro lambs, from the UFGD herd, at the beginning of the study were assigned to a completely randomized design. The experiment was conducted at the containment module dependencies of the Sheep Research Centre, at the experimental farm of the Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados (UFGD). During the confinement, it was evaluated the performance of the animals, such as food consumption and food convert. At the slaughter, the characteristics of the carcass were evaluated, such as thickness of fat cover, rib eye area, hot carcass yield, cold carcass yield, losses through cooling, rib eye area related to body weight, ribeye area related to hot carcass weight, hot carcass weight and cold carcass weight. The characteristics evaluated were submitted to regression analysis using the software Addinsoft , S. ( 2014) . The food conversion showed a linear growth with increasing slaughter weight and losses through cooling showed no variation. As a result, it was possible to conclude that animals must be slaughtered after reaching the 25 kg body weight.