Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-30T07:45:17.263Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Growth and meat quality assessment of entire and castrated suffolk-cross male lambs finished on a traditional grass system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

J.M.L. Anderson  and
G.M. Webster
J.M.L. Anderson
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture University of Newcastle Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
G.M. Webster
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture University of Newcastle Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
Get access

Extract

The aim of this trial was to quantify the variation in growth and lamb meat quality between entire male and castrated male lambs reared under traditional grass systems, and to identify the possible problems in rearing mixed sex groups together. Much work has been carried out on the effects of castration on meat quality and growth (Butler-Hogg et al. 1984; O' Riordan and Hanrahan, 1992), and on pelt removal (Andersen et al.; 1991a, 1991b); this experiment set out to ascertain whether entire male lambs would finish quicker than wether lambs off average condition grass swards in a semi-commercial situation and therefore to determine the necessity of castrating lambs that will be finished by September.

Type
Sheep Nutrition
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 1995 , March 1995 , pp. 89
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersen, M.K., Field, R.A., , Riley, M.L., Crouse, J.D. and Bailey, D.G. 1991a. Factors influencing difficulty of removing pelts from lamb carcasses.Journal of Animal Science 69: 4690–4695.10.2527/1991.69124690xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andersen, M.K., Field, R.A., Riley, M.L., McCormick, R.J., Snowder, G.D. and Bailey, D.G. 1991b. Effects of age, castration and season on the difficulty of pelt removal in lambs. Journal of Animal Science 69: 3284–3291.10.2527/1991.6983284xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butler-Hogg, B.W., Francombe, M.A. and Dransfield, E. 1984. Carcass and meat quality of ram and ewe lambs. Animal Production 39: 107–113.Google Scholar
O'Riordan, E.G. and Hanrahan, J.P. 1992. The effects of sex and castration on growth rate and carcass traits of lambs. Irish Journal of Agriculture and Food Research 31: 157–162.Google Scholar