The Effect of Fattening Time on Fattening Performance, Slaughter and Carcass Characteristics in Tuj Male Lambs

Abstract

The research was carried out in 39 Tuj male lambs with an average weight of 29 kg, weaned at the age of 2.5 and 3 months, reared in the Education, Research and Application Farm of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Kafkas University. In the study, intensive fattening was done by using lamb rearing feed and ad libitum roughage in 3 groups, 13 lambs in each group, and 6 lambs were slaughtered on the 60th, 75th and 90th days in the first, second and third groups, respectively. slaughter and carcass characteristics were examined. At the beginning, middle and end of the experiment, body weights and some body measurements were taken from the lambs in the morning before the animals were fed, and the live weights were recorded by weighing the lambs every 2 weeks during the experiment. At the end of the study, the difference between the groups was found to be significant in terms of anterior shank circumference measured in the middle of the trial in the sixty-day fattening group (P<0.05). Again, at the end of the experiment, the differences between the groups in terms of anterior shank circumference were significant (P<0.05, P<0.01). The difference between the groups was found to be significant in terms of anterior shank circumference measured in the middle of the trial in the group that was fed for seventy-five days (P<0.05). The difference between the groups was found to be significant in terms of anterior shank circumference measured in the middle of the trial in the group that was fed for ninety days (P<0.05). Again, in the 90-day group, the differences between the groups in terms of anterior shank circumference taken at the end of the trial were significant (P<0.01), while the differences between other body measurements taken at other periods in all groups were insignificant (P>0.05).