Precision finishing of South African lambs in feedlots: a review
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Precision finishing of South African lambs in feedlots: a review D. A. Van Der Merwe 1 & T. S. Brand 1,2
&
L. C. Hoffman 1,3
Received: 20 January 2020 / Accepted: 13 May 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract In the intensification of sheep production systems, feedlot finishing plays a fundamental role in preparing lambs for slaughter, as well as relieving the grazing pressure on pasture. The profit margins in feedlot operations are often narrow and require the economics of scale to generate a sufficient income. In order to minimise expenses, intensive management and precision rearing of lambs to an ideal slaughter weight is needed to obtain premium carcass prices. The South African sheep industry is made up of wool, dual-purpose as well as meat type breeds, which also vary in terms of maturity. In order to implement precision finishing of South African lamb, a complete understanding of the growth, intake and fat deposition trends of growing lambs of different breed types is needed. This review outlines feedlot lamb production within the Southern African context for the major commercial breeds, while also providing insight in the considerations necessary to develop a decision support system for lamb rearing. Integrating such a decision support system into a lamb feedlot operation can then be used for precision finishing of lambs by predicting the optimal length of the feeding period and ideal slaughter weights of lambs. Keywords Maturity types . Intensification . Premium lamb . Modelling . Decision support system
Introduction Feedlot finishing is used to add value to the carcass of a lamb with a poor conformation through intensive feeding of the live lamb to promote muscle tissue growth and fat deposition to obtain a more desirable meat product. Relative to European markets, the South African market generally calls for a heavier lamb (18–22 kg carcass vs 10–13 kg carcass) with a greater meat yield (Alfonso et al., 2001; Schönfeldt et al., 2011; Bello et al., 2016). The South African industry produces 177, 000 tonnes of lamb and mutton per annum (DAFF, 2019), with increased pressure for farmers to increase production all the while flock numbers decrease. It is
* T. S. Brand [email protected] 1
Department of Animal Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland, Stellenbosch 7602, South Africa
2
Animal Sciences, Department of Agriculture, Western Cape Government, Private Bag X1, Elsenburg, Stellenbosch 7607, South Africa
3
Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), Health and Food Sciences Precinct, The University of Queensland, 39 Kessels Road, Coopers Plains, Brisbane 4108, Australia
predicted that as a result of climate change, the occurrence of droughts will become more frequent, placing pressure on available resources and cause farmers to produce more efficiently (Meissner et al., 2013). As a result, farmers must intensify their operations in order to maintain production. The implementation of feedlot finishing
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