SUMMARY
The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance and carcass characteristics of Santa Inês lambs fed pasture supplemented with multinutritional blocks (MB). Twenty whole lambs were used, 10 of the Santa Inês Tradicional and 10 Santa Inês Moderno biotypes. These were distributed in a completely randomized design, where they remained until reaching the slaughtering age of 264 days. Although they had different biotypes, sheep did not differ statistically for performance variables, quantitative, qualitative, morphometry, biometrics, only the palette yield variable was higher for the biotype in 19. 75%, while for the traditional one it was 19. 18%. Increasing use of the multinutritional block was observed by lambs up to 56 days of experiment, reaching a maximum of 0.240g/animal/day, but at 84 days there was a decline to 0.198g/animal/day. The average daily gain (ADG) was 144.22 and 146.67 for the traditional and modem biotypes, respectively, and the final weight (FW) was 32. 26 and 32. 66kg for each biotype. The carcass of the animals is moderate and therefore a lean carcass. The gross profit margin was 78 reais/animal. Despite the biotypic differences, the Santa Inês lambs fed pasture and supplemented with multinutritional blocks showed similar carcass characteristics.
Keywords:
commercial cuts; growth; genotypes; carcass yield; native pasture