Studies with the Australian Cashmere Goat. II. Effects of dietary protein concentration and feeding level on body composition of male and female goats

Abstract

The effects of plane of nutrition (ad libitum and 75% ad libitum) and dietary crude protein concentration (11.3, 16.0 and 20.9% crude protein) on body composition of male and female weaner goats were studied in a comparative slaughter experiment. The initial chemical composition of the body (water, ash, protein, fat) and dissectible tissue fractions of the carcass (muscle, fat, bone) of the experimental goats were estimated from regression equations, derived from a group of twelve comparable kids. The final chemical composition and carcass tissue distribution were determined directly by chemical and dissection analyses. There was no effect of dietary crude protein concentration on the chemical composition of the empty body weight (EBW) gain or on carcass tissue distribution. The lack of any response to dietary protein was attributed to similar levels of protein/energy available at the small intestine despite large differences in crude protein intake. Ad libitum feeding, however, resulted in significantly more fat (31.0 v. 22.6% of EBW gain) and less water (51.1 v. 56.4% of EBW gain) in the composition of the gain compared with restricted feeding. There was no effect of feeding level on protein or ash content of the body. Goats fed ad libitum had significantly less muscle (60.1 v. 62.5%) and more dissectible fat (19.5 v. 16.3%) in their carcasses than kids restricted in their intake. Females had significantly more fat (32.7 v. 22.4% of EBW gain) but less water (48.4 v. 57.9% of EBW gain) and nitrogen (2.2 v. 2.8% of EBW gain) in their body gain than did males. Similarly, the carcass of females contained more dissectible fat (22.6 v. 13.2%) but less bone (15.8 v. 19.3%) and muscle (58.5 v. 64.1%) than males. The efficiency of utilization of dietary energy for growth and fattening (kf) was similar (0.32) for all groups of kids.