Suffolk lambs grow faster than Texel lambs when parasite infection is minimised. And the interaction between breed and level of parasite challenge shows that the breed differences in lamb growth depend on level of parasite challenge.
Grazing lambs on chicory produces heavier carcases with a better killing out percentage. Female lambs also demonstrated increased loin juiciness.
High quality maize silage is an ideal forage for finishing lambs indoors, achieving higher intake characteristics and increasing daily live weight gain by up to 50g/d compared to lambs offered medium-quality grass silage.
Dietary vitamin E level did not affect lamb performance, but those fed grass silage grew more slowly and had a higher feed conversion ratio than those fed concentrates.
Computer tomography and ultrasonic measurements provide an effective means of selecting for improved carcass composition.
There is seasonal variation in the concentration of a number of fatty acids in lamb produced under a range of commercial production systems.
Feeding broilers stearidonic acid produced meat with nutritionally significant concentrations of LC n-3 PUFA while reducing the taint detected when birds were fed fish oil.
Supplementing Ross broilers with antibiotics, medicinal plants or organic acids significantly improved body weight, average daily gain and feed:gain ratio during the first 42 days, compared to birds fed an unsupplemented ration.
The proportion of S. typhimurium-shedding chickens was decreased significantly in both chickens fed fermented liquid feed and acidified feed.
Genetic selection for performance and carcass quality in the UK beef cattle and sheep industries has resulted in a rate of return on investment of 32%.
