CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF MADRAS RED LAMBS FED WITH DIETS OF VARYING PROPORTIONS OF ROUGHAGE AND CONCENTRATE

Twenty four Madras red lambs were weaned at 60 days of age and divided in to high forage (HF), medium forage (MF), low forage (LF) and control groups and fed with complete ration containing roughage and concentrate in the ratios of 60:40, 50:50 and 40:60 respectively. The control group was reared by grazing with concentrate supplementation G 100g per head. Carcass measurements were mainly dependent on fhe body weight at slaughter, rather than on energy levels and age. It was concluded that low forage feeding in lambs had significant influence on the primal cuts, meat and bone percentage and yield of offals, blood,liver,lungs and gut percentages. Similarly a high forage diet had significant influence on the bone percentage