Carcass and meat quality characteristics of purebred (hair) and crossbred (wool × hair) sheep lambs grazing fescue pasture as influenced by breed type, sex, and supplementation

Figures & data

Table 1. Chemical composition of tall fescue and soyhull.

Item	Tall fescue	Soyhull
Chemical composition, %DM
Dry Matter, DM	91.3	88.9
Ether extract, fat	2.00	1.17
Crude protein, CP	8.68	9.44
Ash	6.08	4.30
Acid detergent fibre, ADF	44.0	48.5
Total digestible nutrient, TDN	56.5	53.6
Fatty acid, %
C14:0	0.43	0.41
C16:0	19.88	13.23
C16:1n7	1.59	0.27
C18:0	1.91	5.62
C18:1n9	4.28	20.53
C18:2n6	13.56	47.65
C18:3n3	49.71	7.69

Table 2. Daily weight gain and carcass traits in purebred (hair) and crossbred (wool × hair) hair sheep lambs grazed on tall fescue pastures with or without soy hull supplementation.

	Treatment						P-value
	Breed type, B		Sex, S		Diet, D		Main			Interaction
Item	Purebred	Crossbred	Ram	Ewe	Pasture-only	Pasture + soy hull	B	S	D	B × S	B × D	S × D	B × S × D
Average daily gain (ADG), g	83.4	111.8	112.4	82.7	57.5	137.7	0.0001	0.0001	0.0001	0.4765	0.1605	0.0668	0.2038
Fasting body weight (FBW), kg	22.18	29.03	27.47	23.74	21.35	29.86	0.0001	0.0002	0.0001	0.0231	0.1293	0.1211	0.0128
Hot carcass weight, kg	9.31	12.05	11.39	9.97	8.33	13.03	0.0001	0.0020	0.0001	0.0547	0.0537	0.0808	0.0393
Cold carcass weight, kg	8.82	11.39	10.79	9.42	7.81	12.41	0.0001	0.0019	0.0001	0.0566	0.0573	0.0989	0.0252
Carcass shrink, %	5.49	5.54	5.25	5.79	6.21	4.82	0.9555	0.5673	0.1460	0.7453	0.7545	0.3566	0.2028
Dressing percentage, %	41.70	41.09	41.02	41.77	39.10	43.69	0.4059	0.3100	0.0001	0.8134	0.4470	0.4105	0.4429
Loin area, cm^2	8.64	10.51	9.91	9.23	8.29	10.85	0.0001	0.1030	0.0001	0.2254	0.0979	0.0398	0.4629
Primal cut, kg
Neck	0.77	0.98	1.00	0.75	0.71	1.03	0.0001	0.0001	0.0001	0.3023	0.0958	0.0042	0.0652
Shoulder	1.65	2.41	2.03	2.04	1.49	2.57	0.0135	0.9642	0.0008	0.9267	0.3036	0.9369	0.7762
Fore shank	0.40	0.51	0.50	0.42	0.39	0.52	0.0001	0.0004	0.0001	0.1453	0.3421	0.0380	0.0850
Breast	0.97	1.24	1.19	1.03	0.83	1.38	0.0001	0.0051	0.0001	0.1044	0.2036	0.0475	0.0508
Rack	1.10	1.40	1.17	1.34	0.93	1.57	0.0001	0.0057	0.0001	0.0129	0.0325	0.4195	0.0987
Loin	0.63	0.83	0.78	0.68	0.55	0.90	0.0001	0.0012	0.0001	0.0135	0.0738	0.3000	0.0157
Flank	0.33	0.45	0.40	0.38	0.25	0.53	0.0001	0.3146	0.0001	0.2372	0.1001	0.3593	0.0508
Leg	3.17	4.15	3.87	3.46	2.88	4.45	0.0001	0.0072	0.0001	0.0822	0.0804	0.1840	0.0192
Hind shank	0.50	0.62	0.61	0.52	0.49	0.64	0.0002	0.0048	0.0001	0.3348	0.6958	0.1419	0.0815

Note: Within a row, least squares means differ significantly at P < 0.05.

Table 3. Quality characteristics of loin chops from purebred (hair) and crossbred (wool × hair) hair sheep lambs grazed on tall fescue pastures with or without soy hull supplementation.

	Treatment						P-values
	Breed, B		Sex, S		Diet, D		Main			Interaction
Parameter	Purebred	Crossbred	Ram	Ewe	Pasture-only	Pasture + soy hull	B	S	D	B × S	B × D	S × D	B × S × D
Fresh
L* value, lightness	42.47	42.16	43.76	40.87	44.07	40.57	0.3860	0.0001	0.0001	0.2909	0.6051	0.0035	0.2103
a* value, redness	12.16	11.79	11.58	12.37	11.69	12.26	0.1274	0.0012	0.0209	0.5578	0.3952	0.0187	0.2918
b* value, yellowness	12.35	12.40	12.76	11.99	12.82	11.92	0.8256	0.0006	0.0001	0.8240	0.1933	0.8359	0.0027
Myoglobin (Mb), mg/g	3.72	3.67	3.71	3.68	3.44	3.95	0.7408	0.8282	0.0019	0.4089	0.0181	0.2354	0.0608
Metmyoglobin (MetMb), %	24.75	24.64	26.99	22.40	23.25	26.13	0.9527	0.0182	0.1345	0.0385	0.0946	0.1689	0.0973
TBARS, mg/kg	0.32	0.27	0.30	0.30	0.30	0.30	0.0157	0.8089	0.8974	0.1765	0.8320	0.9654	0.4431
Ultimate pH	5.55	5.64	5.57	5.62	5.63	5.57	0.0659	0.3097	0.2136	0.7052	0.4129	0.8245	0.3589
Cooked
Cooking loss, %	20.41	19.70	20.10	20.01	20.32	19.79	0.4089	0.9201	0.5433	0.0859	0.4093	0.3916	0.6821
WBSF, kg/cm^3	2.23	2.37	2.46	2.14	2.40	2.20	0.0672	0.0001	0.0113	0.0128	0.0231	0.0036	0.3712

Note: Within a row, least squares means differ significantly at P < 0.05.

Table 4. Least squares means for proximate and fatty acid composition of longissimus muscle (LM; intramuscular fat) from purebred (hair) and crossbred (wool × hair) hair sheep lambs grazed on tall fescue pastures with or without soy hull supplementation.

	Treatment						P-values
	Breed type, B		Sex, S		Diet, D		Main			Interaction
Item	Purebred	Crossbred	Ram	Ewe	Pasture-only	Pasture + soy hull	B	S	D	B × S	B × D	S × D	B × S × D
Proximate Composition, %
Moisture	75.18	75.48	75.56	75.10	76.12	74.54	0.0505	0.0034	0.0001	0.8178	0.3879	0.3156	0.2999
Crude Protein	22.06	21.77	21.78	22.04	21.42	22.41	0.2182	0.2768	0.0001	0.4397	0.9076	0.3263	0.7038
Ether extracted, fat	1.70	1.65	1.75	1.59	1.47	1.88	0.7436	0.2684	0.0079	0.4929	0.7688	0.0100	0.0926
Ash	1.16	1.20	1.20	1.16	1.19	1.18	0.2033	0.2067	0.7790	0.7169	0.3646	0.1324	0.0126
Fatty acid, %
C10:0	0.92	0.73	0.88	0.77	1.14	0.51	0.5337	0.7059	0.0398	0.9715	0.1576	0.1043	0.2251
C12:0	0.25	0.25	0.26	0.24	0.34	0.16	0.9101	0.6741	0.0025	0.1057	0.7372	0.2572	0.2718
C14:0	3.63	3.67	3.52	3.78	3.57	3.73	0.8435	0.1413	0.3447	0.3777	0.4418	0.5323	0.6654
C14:1n5	0.62	0.64	0.69	0.57	0.68	0.58	0.7783	0.0789	0.1363	0.5525	0.1249	0.6774	0.3642
C16:0, iso	0.39	0.37	0.34	0.42	0.39	0.37	0.8479	0.4552	0.8724	0.9111	0.3609	0.7397	0.2404
C16:0	21.41	22.27	22.09	21.59	21.71	21.97	0.2589	0.5007	0.7306	0.4136	0.4901	0.4494	0.6205
C16:1n7, trans	1.14	0.97	1.04	1.07	1.03	1.08	0.0027	0.5271	0.3934	0.6766	0.3736	0.4124	0.5966
C16:1n7	1.41	1.53	1.57	1.37	1.39	1.55	0.2917	0.0919	0.1980	0.4530	0.2047	0.5745	0.6622
C17:0	1.22	1.17	1.28a	1.11b	1.13	1.26	0.4815	0.0211	0.0802	0.7124	0.2540	0.6546	0.5658
C17:1n7	0.75	0.76	0.76	0.75	0.62	0.88	0.9501	0.8264	0.0001	0.5234	0.3933	0.9904	0.3191
C18:0	19.79	19.88	19.07	20.60	19.06	20.61	0.8572	0.0057	0.0050	0.6398	0.7617	0.6448	0.9512
C18:1n9, trans	0.26	0.28	0.29	0.26	0.27	0.27	0.7487	0.1997	0.9365	0.3928	0.0875	0.1652	0.7616
C18:1n11, trans	1.15	1.16	1.23	1.08	1.21	1.10	0.8101	0.0452	0.1598	0.7026	0.5182	0.3503	0.7480
C18:1n9	33.46	32.73	31.61	34.58	30.91	35.27	0.5196	0.0129	0.0005	0.6139	0.9929	0.4358	0.6841
C18:2n6, trans	0.37	0.36	0.41	0.32	0.39	0.34	0.6729	0.0092	0.0870	0.7230	0.3786	0.6411	0.8791
C18:2n6	6.04	5.86	6.55	5.35	7.03	4.87	0.6541	0.0067	0.0001	0.6747	0.4974	0.7135	0.9334
C18:2, c9,t11	0.31	0.35	0.33	0.33	0.39	0.27	0.4613	0.9885	0.0354	0.6888	0.7825	0.5992	0.5312
C18:3n3	1.21	1.24	1.42	1.03	1.51	0.94	0.7876	0.0028	0.0001	0.8311	0.5771	0.3707	0.6613
C18:3n6	0.76	0.72	0.79	0.69	0.75	0.73	0.6451	0.2315	0.7458	0.8289	0.8161	0.5198	0.4982
C20:1n9	0.30	0.34	0.35	0.29	0.36	0.28	0.2774	0.0609	0.0214	0.0812	0.3866	0.5881	0.2457
C20:2n6	0.68	0.72	0.84	0.56	0.93	0.48	0.7131	0.0118	0.0002	0.6360	0.6531	0.6043	0.5200
C20:4n6	3.14	2.97	3.58	2.25	3.87	2.23	0.6561	0.0088	0.0001	0.7003	0.9801	0.5058	0.8713
C20:5n3	0.35	0.34	0.38	0.31	0.34	0.34	0.7405	0.0288	0.8983	0.5133	0.0848	0.4871	0.8141
C22:5n3	1.06	1.01	1.23	0.84	1.35	0.73	0.6767	0.0071	0.0001	0.7191	0.9834	0.4267	0.9669
C22:6n3	0.34	0.34	0.39	0.30	0.44	0.24	0.9682	0.1071	0.0014	0.7242	0.5767	0.9873	0.6925

Note: Within a row, least squares means differ significantly at P < 0.05.

Table 5. Least squares means for fatty acid composition, weight percent of fatty acid methyl esters, of subcutaneous fat from purebred (hair) and crossbred (wool × hair) hair sheep lambs grazed on tall fescue pastures with or without soy hull supplementation.

	Treatment						P-value
	Breed type B		Sex, S		Diet, D		Main			Interaction
Fatty acid, %	Purebred	Crossbred	Ram	Ewe	Pasture-only	Pasture + soy hull	B	S	D	B × S	B × D	S × D	B × S × D
C10:0	1.08	0.90	1.05	0.93	1.07	0.90	0.2258	0.4553	0.2618	0.1381	0.7379	0.9816	0.1302
C12:0	0.57	0.40	0.58	0.38	0.68	0.29	0.1443	0.0819	0.0016	0.8659	0.3249	0.9449	0.3223
C14:0	4.44	4.69	4.42	4.70	4.60	4.53	0.2366	0.1824	0.7346	0.0453	0.3078	0.0630	0.0622
C14:1n5	0.96	1.09	1.09	0.96	1.09	0.96	0.1490	0.1345	0.1314	0.4182	0.0294	0.6047	0.0306
C16:0, iso	0.34	1.08	0.78	0.63	1.12	0.30	0.0277	0.6444	0.0166	0.5327	0.1536	0.1835	0.0352
C16:0	19.21	25.79	22.57	22.42	24.82	20.17	0.0001	0.9211	0.0044	0.0304	0.0979	0.0257	0.8931
C16:1n7, trans	1.31	0.93	1.11	1.13	1.05	1.19	0.0001	0.8351	0.0998	0.6392	0.4058	0.0003	0.1981
C16:1n7	1.99	2.16	2.10	2.04	1.77	2.38	0.1952	0.6490	0.0001	0.3385	0.4892	0.4227	0.3485
C17:0	1.29	1.33	1.28	1.34	1.27	1.36	0.5039	0.3221	0.1609	0.5464	0.8552	0.6037	0.8106
C17:1n7	1.14	1.12	1.12	1.14	0.82	1.45	0.7529	0.8014	0.0001	0.4618	0.8713	0.1520	0.3554
C18:0	19.16	19.06	19.50	18.72	18.04	20.18	0.9367	0.5377	0.0970	0.8936	0.6144	0.5368	0.5634
C18:1n9, trans	0.34	0.23	0.28	0.29	0.30	0.27	0.0382	0.7510	0.6374	0.2868	0.1464	0.9275	0.2143
C18:1n11, trans	0.93	0.77	0.83	0.87	0.92	0.79	0.0728	0.6038	0.1276	0.2348	0.6259	0.8185	0.2122
C18:1n9	35.66	30.50	32.91	33.25	29.68	36.48	0.0002	0.7789	0.0001	0.0204	0.2854	0.0258	0.5882
C18:2n6, trans	0.57	0.42	0.45	0.54	0.61	0.38	0.0587	0.2604	0.0055	0.5075	0.0833	0.4502	0.5461
C18:2n6	3.74	3.30	3.72	3.33	3.67	3.37	0.2871	0.3467	0.4626	0.3136	0.1887	0.2566	0.2380
C18:2, c9,t11	0.46	0.46	0.41	0.51	0.63	0.29	0.9030	0.0856	0.0001	0.5056	0.3031	0.0630	0.4074
C18:3n3	1.03	0.80	0.91	0.92	0.96	0.87	0.012	0.9287	0.2236	0.6540	0.6783	0.0066	0.2175
C18:3n6	0.64	0.63	0.64	0.62	0.73	0.53	0.8980	0.8277	0.0153	0.7128	0.6711	0.7281	0.6648
C20:1n9	0.51	0.58	0.29	0.80	0.88	0.21	0.8665	0.1825	0.0778	0.8722	0.9129	0.2122	0.9241
C20:2n6	0.47	0.43	0.40	0.49	0.59	0.31	0.6525	0.2651	0.021	0.2375	0.4487	0.4323	0.3388
C20:4n6	2.76	2.41	2.59	2.58	3.03	2.14	0.4210	0.9786	0.0506	0.3373	0.4348	0.9341	0.3856
C20:5n3	0.58	0.46	0.44	0.60	0.61	0.43	0.2650	0.1589	0.1107	0.9071	0.5042	0.0893	0.6449
C22:5n3	0.55	0.38	0.34	0.60	0.79	0.15	0.5520	0.3490	0.0329	0.7169	0.6849	0.3717	0.9458
C22:6n3	0.27	0.16	0.17	0.25	0.32	0.11	0.2392	0.4073	0.0458	0.994	0.4277	0.3076	0.1392

Note: Within a row, least squares means differ significantly at P < 0.05.

Table 6. Least squares means for fatty acid composition, weight percent of fatty acid methyl esters, of kidney fat from purebred (hair) and crossbred (wool × hair) hair sheep lambs grazed on tall fescue pastures with or without soy hull supplementation.

	Treatment						P-value
	Breed type, B		Sex, S		Diet, D		Main			Interaction
Fatty acid, %	Purebred	Crossbred	Ram	Ewe	Pasture-only	Pasture + soy hull	B	S	D	B × S	B × D	S × D	B × S × D
C10:0	1.10	1.22	1.55	0.77	1.33	0.99	0.6746	0.0083	0.2209	0.9466	0.9497	0.1713	0.3575
C12:0	0.18	0.17	0.21	0.14	0.20	0.15	0.622	0.0169	0.0859	0.6383	0.1950	0.1142	0.6071
C14:0	4.33	3.97	4.28	4.02	4.11	4.19	0.0025	0.0230	0.4589	0.1147	0.6348	0.3848	0.1220
C14:1n5	1.15	1.13	1.23	1.05	1.38	0.90	0.8378	0.0873	0.0001	0.8831	0.3943	0.3024	0.7297
C16:0, iso	0.52	0.41	0.52	0.41	0.69	0.24	0.0827	0.0829	0.0001	0.2914	0.5482	0.5933	0.5590
C16:0	22.55	20.56	21.14	21.97	19.25	23.86	0.0876	0.4604	0.0003	0.2548	0.5501	0.6096	0.4773
C16:1n7, trans	0.68	0.60	0.65	0.62	0.54	0.74	0.3333	0.6672	0.0139	0.0505	0.7170	0.5127	0.1691
C16:1n7	2.24	2.32	2.29	2.28	2.12	2.45	0.1323	0.9065	0.0001	0.1084	0.7056	0.3062	0.9222
C17:0	1.53	1.38	1.49	1.42	1.37	1.54	0.0048	0.1726	0.0022	0.5003	0.1840	0.8840	0.8314
C17:1n7	1.16	0.96	0.99	1.13	0.82	1.30	0.0275	0.0922	0.0001	0.0434	0.0230	0.0529	0.1381
C18:0	21.32	21.08	21.45	20.95	21.07	21.33	0.6967	0.4138	0.6703	0.1805	0.1143	0.6584	0.3302
C18:1n9, trans	0.23	0.23	0.24	0.22	0.21	0.25	0.9998	0.2967	0.0826	0.5179	0.0874	0.0678	0.5401
C18:1n11, trans	0.86	0.79	0.90	0.75	0.79	0.85	0.3792	0.0813	0.4593	0.5226	0.0684	0.2423	0.8136
C18:1n9	30.65	33.79	31.41	33.04	34.43	30.01	0.0653	0.3267	0.0117	0.2683	0.0938	0.2726	0.3119
C18:2n6, trans	0.54	0.50	0.52	0.52	0.60	0.44	0.0908	0.9635	0.0001	0.9285	0.6730	0.8420	0.1390
C18:2n6	4.46	4.47	4.51	4.42	4.15	4.78	0.9558	0.2676	0.0001	0.2399	0.3572	0.7283	0.5287
C18:2, c9,t11	0.47	0.48	0.49	0.46	0.65	0.30	0.9041	0.3523	0.0001	0.1462	0.0059	0.8386	0.8417
C18:3n3	1.72	1.60	1.68	1.64	1.72	1.60	0.0023	0.2610	0.0011	0.7350	0.5575	0.6591	0.7299
C18:3n6	0.64	0.64	0.64	0.64	0.65	0.62	0.8994	0.9322	0.3727	0.6798	0.1541	0.9261	0.6055
C20:1n9	0.40	0.43	0.43	0.40	0.49	0.35	0.2827	0.1392	0.0001	0.2457	0.3165	0.6894	0.8559
C20:2n6	0.52	0.54	0.54	0.51	0.61	0.44	0.2490	0.0356	0.0001	0.0990	0.1097	0.8851	0.8588
C20:4n6	2.13	2.14	2.17	2.10	2.17	2.10	0.8250	0.2223	0.2387	0.9403	0.1558	0.5226	0.5376
C20:5n3	0.38	0.35	0.38	0.35	0.35	0.38	0.1316	0.1888	0.1035	0.4763	0.1049	0.3246	0.5090
C22:5n3	0.13	0.14	0.16	0.11	0.16	0.10	0.8560	0.1629	0.0757	0.7580	0.2142	0.1250	0.7089
C22:6n3	0.11	0.13	0.17	0.07	0.16	0.08	0.6346	0.0695	0.1763	0.9904	0.0716	0.4215	0.4472

Note: Within a row, least squares means differ significantly at P < 0.05.