Performance of Finnish Landrace goat kids and
lambs raised under stall-feeding conditions in Finland
Riitta Sormunen-Cristian
a,*, Tapani KangasmaÈki
baAgricultural Research Centre of Finland, Animal Production Research, FIN-31600 Jokioinen, Finland bFinnish Goat Breeders' Association, FIN-39500 Ikaalinen, Finland
Received 20 May 1999; accepted 1 April 2000
Abstract
Ten male Finnish Landrace goat kids and 10 male Finnish Landrace lambs raised under similar stall-feeding conditions were compared for feed intake, feed ef®ciency, growth rate and slaughter results. The animals were housed individually from 2 months old to slaughter in grated metal pens and offered timothy/meadow fescue hay ad libitum and a concentrate at800 g/ animal/day. In their daily ration lambs and kids received on average 14.98 and 9.55 MJ metabolizable energy (ME), 186 and 136 g crude protein (CP) and 125 and 81 g amino acids absorbed in the small intestine (AAT), respectively. Mean total dry matter (DM) intake (98 vs. 75 g/kgW0.75) and mean growth rate (245 vs. 174 g animal/day) were higher for lambs than for kids. All these differences between the two species were signi®cant (p<0.001). On the other hand, dressing percentage (48.2 vs. 42.6%,p<0.001) and DM and AAT utilization (kg/kg meat,p<0.01) were higher in kids than in lambs. During rearing there were no health problems in lambs, but kids suffered from urinary tract problems. Kids needed 2 months more than lambs to produce an 18 kg carcass (202 vs. 143 days).#2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Goat kid; Growth; Hay; Intake; Lamb; Small ruminant
1. Introduction
Unlike southern Europeans, Finns are not accus-tomed to consuming meat from small ruminants. They consume lamb meat at ca. 0.4 kg per capita per annum (SVT, 1998). Goat meat consumption is negligible and therefore it is not even recorded in of®cial agricultural statistics. Finnish lamb production is well documented (Puntila et al., 1993; Sormunen-Cristian et al., 1997), but much less is known about meat production and meat quality of goat kids reared under Finnish
con-ditions. Compared with beef, goat meat contains the same amount of protein, but 50±60% less fat and compared with broiler meat it also contains 40% less saturated fatty acids (Addrizzo, 1992). Due to its chemical composition goat meat is a healthy alter-native for consumers. As in sheep, the best quality goat meat is produced by kids, 3±6 months old, whose meat is nearly fatless and light in colour. Unfortu-nately, this meat is rarely available to the customers, since male kids and idle female kids are often slaugh-tered at an early age.
Nutrient requirements in Finland are well-de®ned for cattle (Tuori et al., 1996), but there remains a lack of reliable information about the nutritional needs of small ruminants and especially those of Finnish Land-race goats under Finnish conditions. Therefore, in this
*Corresponding author. Tel.:358-3-41881;
fax:358-3-41883661.
E-mail address: riitta.sormunen-cristian@mtt.fi (R. Sormunen-Cristian).
study goat kids were fed according to the energy and protein recommendations for lambs (Tuori et al., 1996), although information is insuf®cient as to whether protein and energy requirements for other ruminants are applicable to goats (Aquilera et al., 1990). The present study was designed to provide information on the effect of intensive feeding on feed intake, feed ef®ciency, growth rate and slaughter results of lambs and kids reared under similar stall-feeding conditions.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Animals, feeds and feeding
The study was carried out at the Sheep Research Station in Jokioinen (608540N, 23
8300E, 107 m asl) in
summer 1990. Ten male kids and 10 male lambs of Finnish Landrace breed were reared individually in grated metal pens (each 2.6 m2) with four feed-bins and a water nipple, designed speci®cally for lambs, from the age of 2 months to slaughter at 18 kg carcass weight. The animals used were generated in the sheep ¯ock (120 breeding ewes) and goat herd (50 milking does) of the Agricultural Research Centre of Finland. The experimental design was completely randomized. Chopped hay, a mixture of timothy (Phleum
pra-tense L.) and meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis
Huds.), was given ad libitum and supplemented with a concentrate at 0.5±0.8 kg/animal/day. At the begin-ning of the experiment the commercial concentrate consisted of 18.5±31.5% rape seed meal, 13.5% soya-bean meal, 12% barley meal and 12% oat meal. To decrease feeding costs, 30±50% of a commercial concentrate was gradually replaced with barley grain. All feed refusals were removed before morning feed-ing and weighed. The animals had free access to water, mineral mixture (Ca/P1.8) and salt. To balance the calcium:phosphorus ratio, 10±15 g calcium bicarbo-nate (CaCO3) per day per animal was added to the
daily provision of concentrates. Animals were fed the concentrate twice a day and hay once a day. Individual feed intake was recorded daily.
2.2. Analytical and statistical methods
Feed samples were taken at every feeding and pooled over 2 weeks. Chemical analyses of the feeds
were conducted according to standard procedures (AOAC, 1980). Digestibility coef®cients were derived from in vivo experiments. Net energy value of the experimental feeds was calculated as feed fattening units (FFU, 0.7 kg starch equivalent) according to Salo et al. (1990) and metabolizable energy (ME) accord-ing to MAFF (1975). The protein content of the feeds was calculated as crude protein (CP) and in terms of amino acids absorbed in the small intestine (AAT) and protein balance in the rumen (PBV) (AAT-PBV sys-tem, Tuori et al., 1996). The live weight of kids and lambs was recorded when entering the experiment and thereafter at two week intervals until slaughtered. Initial and ®nal live weights were averages of 2 consecutive days to calculate a metabolic live weight (kgW0.75).
Data were analysed by one-way analysis of variance using PROC GLM (SAS Institute, 1990). Signi®cant differences between means for goats and sheep were tested using Tukey's HSD test.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Feeds and feed intake
Chemical composition and feed values of hay and concentrates fed to both kids and lambs are presented in Table 1. Hay harvested at the late stage of growth was too coarse for growing lambs and kids. It is recommended that crude ®bre content of roughages for lambs should not be more than 20% in dry matter (DM) (SjoÈdin, 1983).
Feed intake recorded from 56 to 202 days of age for kids and from 59 to 143 days of age for lambs is presented in Table 2. As lambs grew, their feed intake increased linearly wheareas that of kids ¯uctuated markedly and they showed a lack of appetite on several occasions. It was suggested that inappetence of kids partly resulted from a fall in rumen pH caused by intensive concentrate feeding (Forbes, 1995). Although nutritive value of refusals was not assessed, the kids appeared to be more selective feeders than lambs. In the study of Wahed and Owen (1986) goats were able to show selectivity even when offered a morphologically homogenous feed such as straw. Feed choice is found especially when grazing and brows-ing (McCammon-Feldman et al., 1981), but usually
differences in feed selection of indoor-fed sheep and goats have not been clearly established (Louca et al., 1982).
Comparative studies of feed intake in adult goats and sheep fed on low-quality forages have shown that goats have higher voluntary DM intake than sheep (El Hag, 1976; Wahed and Owen, 1986; Domingue et al., 1991; Papachristou, 1996) or no differences have been found between the species (Economides, 1998). In contrast, in our study total daily DM, net energy and protein intakes (AAT) of lambs from the age of 2
months to slaughter were signi®cantly higher
(p<0.001) than those of kids. The daily DM consump-tion of hay and concentrates averaged 54 and 44 g/ kgW0.75 for lambs, respectively, and 26 and 49 g/ kgW0.75 for kids. The higher DM intake recorded for lambs compared with kids is supported by ®ndings of Jones et al. (1972), Sharma and Rajora (1977) and Aregheore (1996) among others. According to Wahed and Owen (1986) the greater intake by goats is merely a re¯ection of a higher maintenance-energy require-ment. In this study, DM intake of lambs was similar to that given by Owen (1976), but clearly higher than that reported by Domingue et al. (1991) and Papachristou
(1996) (98 vs. 56 g/kgW0.75/day). The intake values recorded for goats averaged 3.2% of body weight (BW) and were similar to those reported by Papa-christou (1996). In the study of Lu (1988), DM intake of goats ranged from 1.5 to 5.2% of BW. Water intake was not recorded in our study, but Alam et al. (1983) observed lower water intake for goats. Water intake is related to DM intake (Koes and Pfander, 1975). Wahed and Owen (1986) reported sheep and goats to consume 2.44 and 2.05 kg water/kg feed DM.
According to Finnish nutrient recommendations (Tuori et al., 1996) a 25 and a 35 kg lamb with a daily growth rate of 250 g require on average 11.35 and 14.80 MJ ME, respectively, and 99 g AAT for combined maintenance and growth. The lambs satis-®ed their energy and protein needs well, whereas all goat kids suffered from energy and protein de®ciency, energy and protein intakes being 36 and 35% below recommendations for lambs (Tuori et al., 1996), respectively. Furthermore, in comparison with the energy needs of goats calculated by NRC (1981), it was shown that energy intake of kids was too low, thus preventing them from meeting their requirements. During the rearing period, lambs and kids consumed totally 70 and 44 kg hay per animal, and 57 and 88 kg concentrates per animal, respectively. Due to the longer growth period, the feeding cost for each kid until slaughter, was nearly US$ 8 higher than that for a lamb.
3.2. Live weight, growth rate, slaughter results and feed ef®ciency
Lambs were heavier than kids throughout the experiment. Energy and protein de®ciencies retarded kid growth. Growth rates from 2 months of age until slaughter were higher for lambs than for kids (Fig. 1). In contrast, Aregheore (1996) did not ®nd any differ-ences in growth rates between kids and lambs fed similarly on different crop residues.
The lambs were ready for slaughter (with standard deviation) at 143.0 (S.D. 2.7) days and the kids at 201.8 (S.D. 11.4) days. At slaughter, the kids had already acquired the typical odour of male goats. There were no differences in carcass weight between species (Table 2). Dressing percentage of kids calcu-lated from the empty body weight was 6.2 percentage units higher than that of lambs. Despite intensive
Table 1
Chemical composition and feed values of the experimental feeds
Hay Concentrates
Commercial Home-made
DMa(%) 86.1 89.4 88.9
In DM (%)
Organic matter 94.0 90.2 93.7 Crude protein 9.1 23.0 18.0
Ether extract 2.1 6.8 4.5
Crude fibre 33.4 10.9 8.1
Nb-free extract 49.4 49.5 63.1
Feed values/kg DM
concentrate feeding, the amount of kidney fat in kids and lambs was low. This study was carried out before Finland joined the European Union and therefore the monetary value of lamb meat paid by an abattoir was considerably high (US$ 5.83/kg). In contrast, the price of kid meat (US$ 1.63/kg) was surprisingly low and, therefore, it was suggested that it could be more economical to slaughter kids at home and sell their meat directly from the farm. In central and southern Europe there is a strong tradition of goat meat con-sumption and therefore, e.g. in Switzerland and Spain,
the price of goat meat is higher than that of lamb meat (Addrizzo, 1992).
Feed utilization was calculated per kg live weight gain and per kg carcass weight. DM and AAT ef®-ciency (kg/kg meat) were better (p<0.01) for kids than for lambs. However, no differences were found in CP utilization. The results are consistent with those of Aregheore (1996), although DM ef®ciencies in the intensive concentrate feeding of lambs and kids proved to be considerably better than those based on crop-residue rations.
Table 2
Mean daily feed intake and feed ef®ciency
Kids S.D.h Lambs S.D. Statistical
significance
No of animals 8 9
Initial live weight (kg) 12.4 2.2 22.9 3.6 ***
Final live weight (kg) 37.1 4.2 42.8 3.9 **
Growth rate (g) 174 23 245 26 ***
Feed intake
Hay DMa(g) 260 152 740 237 ***
Total DM (g) 830 54 1340 138 ***
MEb(MJ) 9.55 0.60 14.98 1.40 ***
NEc(FFUd) 0.75 0.04 1.12 0.09 ***
Cpe(g) 136 8 186 13 ***
AATf(g) 81 5 125 12 ***
PBVg(g) 4 2 ÿ22 6 ***
Carcass weight (kg) 18.1 2.1 18.2 1.5 NSi
Dressing percent (%) 48.2 0.8 42.6 1.3 ***
Kidney fat (g) 980 268 690 198 *
Feed conversion/kg live weight gain
DM (kg) 4.88 0.65 5.53 0.85 NS
ME (MJ) 55.82 7.40 61.69 9.06 NS
CP (kg) 0.79 0.12 0.76 0.10 NS
AAT (kg) 0.47 0.06 0.52 0.08 NS
Feed conversion/kg carcass weight
DM (kg) 10.14 1.43 13.24 2.27 **
ME (MJ) 116.05 16.24 147.63 24.07 **
CP (kg) 1.65 0.25 1.83 0.26 NS
AAT (kg) 0.98 0.14 1.23 0.20 **
aDry matter.
bMetabolizable energy. cNet energy.
dFattening feed unit (0.7 kg starch equivalent). eCrude protein.
fAmino acids absorbed in the small intestine. gProtein balance in the rumen.
hStandard deviation. iNon-signi®cant.
*Signi®cant differences atp<0.05,p<0.01 andp<0.001 levels are indicated by *, ** and ***, respectively.
3.3. Health
Due to urinary calculi one goat kid died at 3 months and another at 4 months and therefore their data before death was removed from the analysis. Moreover, two other kids temporarily suffered from urolithiasis, but survived following effective medical treatment. Results from experiments have shown a higher inci-dence of urinary calculi when there is a high phos-phorus:low calcium ratio (Ca:P should be 2:1) or a high proportion of high-silica grains and forages (Ensminger and Parker, 1986). It was suggested that intensive feeding with barley grain caused urinary tract problems. Moreover, the metal cages designed for lambs seemed to be too drafty for the kids. Due to the high portion of concentrates one lamb suffered from laminitis at the end of the experiment. Moreover, one lamb was removed from the experiment for reasons unrelated to the treatment.
4. Conclusions
Kids needed a 2 months longer rearing period to produce an 18 kg carcass than lambs under similar stall-feeding conditions. Due to lower feed intake and better dressing percentage, feed utilization for meat production from goat kids was signi®cantly better than from lambs. However, to avoid health problems in growing kids, intensive feeding is not recommended. Development of the stall-feeding system by using, e.g. good quality silage for increased meat production of male kids requires further investigation
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge skilled technical assistance from the staff of the Sheep Research Station in Kuuma in the course of this study.
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