Exploration of carcass traits of Nagavali ram lambs fed with guar meal in their diet

The research was conducted on twenty-four Nagavali ram lambs that are assigned to four feeding regimens where the diet was formulated using local ingredients like maize, DORB and soyabean meal in the control diet (T1), that was substituted with non-conventional guar meal at 50% (T2), 75% (T3) and 100% (T4). From each experimental group two lambs are slaughtered after 90 days of feed trail. The carcass parameters such as pre-slaughter weight, empty body weight and hot carcass weight were not significantly affected (p>0.05) by feeding lambs guar meal at up to 100%. The dressing percentage on both pre slaughter weight and empty body weight were similar (p>0.05) among the groups. The wholesale cuts percentage with regard to carcass weight were comparable (p>0.05) among all the lambs. Similar meat, bone and fat yield was observed among the groups. Furthermore, the diets had no notable impact on the yield of visceral organs or the chemical composition of the longissimus dorsi muscle. The findings reveal that carcass characteristics were not adversely affected by the replacement of conventional soyabean meal with guar meal in the lamb ration at up to 100% level and can be utilised in the place of soyabean meal as a protein source.