Commercial cuts and carcass characteristics of sheep and goats supplemented with multinutritional blocks

Objective. Aimed to identify the weight and yield of the commercial cuts, muscularity, and adiposity in the carcasses of sheep and goats grazing in the Caatinga supplemented with different sources of supplementations; these include feed-blocks. Material and methods. Sixty non-castrated males an initial average body weight of 18.63 ± 1.93 kg were used: 30 goats and 30 sheep all animals did not have a defined breed standard (WDBS). The experimental design used was entirely randomized (DIC), in factorial scheme 3x2 (three types of supplementation: mineral salt, MBs and MBs + buffel hay, and two species: sheep and goats) and 10 replications. Animals were raised in a rangeland grazing system in an area with vegetation characteristic of Caatinga ecosystem under three types of supplementation: 1: only mineral salt; 2: Feed blocks (MBs); and 3: MBs + buffel hay There were measured the weight, yield and the components of left half-part of carcass of lambs and kids. Results. The sheep were superior to goats in carcass conformation, loin-eye area, index of muscularity of the leg and compactness index of the leg while the goats were superior to sheep in leg muscles weight. Conclusions. Sheep and Goats, when fed with supplementation of pasture feeding blocks in the Caatinga ecosystem; Supplementation with mineral salt and Multinutritional Blocks with and without Buffel can be used to improve herds in the caatinga, with similar results among the three. Sheep show more adiposity of meat than goats, in contrast, goats have higher musculature than sheep when fed with feed blocks.