Correlations between Crude Protein/Total Digestible Nutrients Ratio and Commercial Cuts Weight and Percentage of Thin Tailed Lambs

Abstract

This study was conducted to studythe relationship between crude protein and total digestible nutrients (CP/TDN) ratio and shoulder, leg, and loin weight and percentage of thin tailed lambs. Twenty four heads of three months old male thin tailed lambs with initial body weight (BW) 14.19± 0.17kg were fattened by feda complete feed contained three levels of crude protein (CP; 12, 14 and 16%) and two levels of total digestible nutrients (TDN; 60, 70%) to give sixratios of CP/TDN. After 3 months fattening period, the lamb was slaughtered and commercially cut into 8 parts including shoulder, leg, and loin, and then weighed.The data was analyzed by correlation regression to determine the correlation between CP/TDN ratio and shoulder, leg, and loin weight and percentage of weaning lambs carcass. The results showed that the CP/TDN ratio in feed has a medium correlation value with the shoulder weight (r=0.57), shoulder percentage (r = 0.42), and leg weight (r = 0.43), while low correlation was found in loin weight (r = 0.25), and negatively low correlated with leg and loin percentage, being-0.28 and -0.15,respectively. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the weight and percentage of shoulder,and leg and loin weight could be influenced by CP/TDN ratio in feed, but has no effect on the percentage of leg and loin.