Carcass and body components of suckling lambs grazing ryegrass and supplemented with legume or concentrate

ABSTRACT This research objective was to evaluate the effect of private supplementation with concentrated or legumes, on the carcass characteristics and body components from suckling lambs kept on ryegrass pasture. Twenty seven suckling lambs were used, with about 17 days of age and weighing 9,91±0,594kg, which were distributed in the treatments that corresponded to feeding systems: suckling lambs kept on ryegrass pasture, suckling lambs kept on ryegrass pasture and supplemented with concentrated in private feeder (creep feeding) and suckling lambs kept on ryegrass pasture and supplemented with legume in the private pasture (creep grazing). The concentrate supplement was composed by corn, soybean meal and limestone, and was supplied ad libitum. The supplementary pasture was white clover legume. The experimental design was completely randomized, where the results were submitted to analysis of variance and means compared by Tukey test at 5% of significance level. The gastrointestinal+bile+urine content and the proportion of esophagus were higher (P<0,05) in lambs kept on ryegrass. The liver and large intestine proportions were higher (P<0,05) in lambs supplemented with concentrate. The tested alimentary systems produce carcasses with similar characteristics. The supplementation with legume or concentrate cause changes in body components of suckling lambs grazing ryegrass.