Lamb Winter Finishing

Investigation of variation of lamb meat quality on three winter finishing systems

Aims

The aim of this project was to assess whether meat quality in lambs varies according to time of year and the diet that they were finished on.

How was the project done?

180 Texel cross Mule lambs from one farm were allocated to a three feed treatment x two finishing period study to investigate variation in lamb meat quality by diet and date of slaughter. Lambs were finished in groups of 30 in either November 2007 or March 2008. The feed treatments were grass or grass silage (with compound supplementation where necessary), stubble turnips or ad-libitumcompound feed. 16 wether lambs from each treatment were sent to Bristol University for meat quality and taste panel assessment and were compared with lambs from two control groups; grass-only fed British lamb (from the same farm) slaughtered in November and New Zealand lamb delivered in May.

Who did the work?

The work was undertaken by ADAS and jointly funded by HCC, EBLEX Ltd, QMS and Defra.

Results

A full report can be found here.