The effect of supplemented chestnut tannin to grass silage either at ensiling or at feeding on lamb performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the effect of supplemented chestnut hydrolysable tannin (HT) both at ensiling and at feeding on lamb growth, carcass characteristic, and meat quality. Twenty tons of ryegrass (Lolium perenne) were used to produce silage. The ryegrass was treated at ensiling with one of three additives: 30 g kg^-1 DM chestnut HT (GET), an inoculant as a positive control (GI), or water as a negative control (G). Another two treatments were made from ensiled grass by adding the 30 g kg^-1 DM of chestnut HT to either positive (GI+T) or negative (GT) control. Forty Suffolk cross Mule lambs were used in this experiment and allocated to receive one of five experimental forage treatments with eight lambs per treatment. The diet consisted of two parts: concentrate and silage. Lambs were fed 215 g DM day^-1 lamb of concentrate diet and ad libitum grass silage for seven weeks and then slaughtered. Back fat thickness tended to be lower (p= 0.07) for lambs fed the GT and GI+T treatments compared to lambs in the other experimental groups’ (10.0, 10.1, 9.8, 10.0, and 9.8 mm for GET, G, GT, GI, and GI+T, respectively). Feeding lambs GET tended to reduce (p= 0.06) meat lightness (L*) compared to the other treatments. Ammonia nitrogen concentration in rumen fluid was reduced significantly (p< 0.05) when lambs consumed diets treated with tannin both at ensiling and at feeding (0.14, 0.19, 0.17, 0.17 and 0.14g l^-1 GET G, GT, GI, and GI+T, respectively). The experimental treatments had no effect (p> 0.05) on voluntary feed intake (914, 916, 899, 928, or 914 g day^-1 for GET, G, GT, GI, and GI+T, respectively) or lamb performance.