Comparison of Growth Performance, Carcass Yield and Meat Quality of Blackhead Persian with Red Masai Sheep under Feedlot in Tanzania

The 90 days feedlot study was conducted using 16 Black Head Persian (BHP) and 16 Red Masai (RM) lambs, with ages ranging from 9 to 10 months and an average live weight of 14.5kgs. The study lambs were subjected to four different treatments (T1, T2, T3 and T4). The control was T1, which was feeding 435g of barley straw daily while T2, T3 and T4 were feeding daily 435g of barley straw with concentrate supplementation amounting to 174g, 261g and 348g, respectively. The concentrate is composed of maize bran (77%), sunflower seed cake (21%), vitamin and mineral premixes (2%). The concentrate had 16% crude protein and 12.4MJ ME/kg DM. The study employed a 22 x 4 factorial design. Feedlot levels, carcass yield and meat quality of treatments were evaluated. Dry matter intake was significantly higher for BHP than RM (48.5 vs. 47.2g/kg W 0.75/day) and energy intake (10.8 vs. 8.32MJ ME/day), respectively. The average daily gains (ADG) were 31.2, 42.4, 42.9 and 46.9 g/day for BHP in T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively, and 30.7, 30.9, 38.7 and 45.1g/day for RM in T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively. For T1, the breeds did not differ in terms of ADG, whereas T4 expressed no significance between sex in ADG. The BHP and RM breeds were comparable in pre-slaughter weights (18.5 vs. 17.9 kg), hot carcass weights (7.77 vs 7.12 kg) and empty body weights (14.1 vs. 13.7 kg). Conversely, BHP displayed a higher loin eye area (LEA) than RM (14.6 vs. 12.9 cm2, respectively). Nonetheless, T4 was the economical treatment with a profit margin of Tanzanian shillings 2,395 and 1,195 for BHP and RM, respectively. It was concluded that, doing feedlots using barley straw as basal feed for BHP and RM is comparable in terms of meat productivity and quality performance.