Performance and carcass characteristics of finishing Black goat kids fed oil supplemented diets

Effects of oil supplemented diets on growth performance and carcass proportions were studied using 27 male Black goat kids with a body weight (BW) of 19.4 ± 0.41 kg at the beginning of the experiment. Kids were randomly divided into 3 groups of 9, and those in each group were individually fed cereal grain-soybean meal (SBM) based total mixed rations (TMR) with a fixed amount (i.e., 30 g/kg dry matter (DM)) of oil being either: sesame (SES), sunflower (SUN) or soybean (SOY). All TMR were isonitrogenous and iso-metabolizable energy (ME). At the termination of the 105 d feeding study, all kids were slaughtered. Kids fed SES or SOY supplemented diets consumed more (P<0.05) feed (i.e., DM, organic matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber) and gained more BW (P<0.05) than those fed the SUN supplemented diet. However, kids fed the SES supplemented diets had a better (P<0.05) feed conversion ratio than kids fed the SUN or SOY diets. Oil type had no effect on carcass components (i.e., loin, legs, shoulder, rack) weights. Liver and kidney fat were heaviest (P<0.05) in kids fed the SES supplemented diet. However, kids fed the SES supplemented diet had less (P<0.05) mesenteric fat and lower (P<0.05) total gastrointestinal tract weights compared to kids fed the SUN or SOY supplemented diets. Eye muscle width and depth and rib eye area were higher (P<0.05) in carcasses of kids fed the SES supplemented diet. Positive effects of SES as a supplemental oil on most responses is encouraging, but more investigation is needed to identify the optimal level of SES in various diets of goat kids.