Discrimination study between the carcass and non-carcass components for interaction between gender, age, and production system in indigenous sheep

The objective of this work was to evaluate the yields, morphometric measures, carcass, and non-carcass components, and carcass regional and tissue composition of an indigenous sheep (Pantaneiro) of different physiological stages (gender, age, system production. Thirty sheep, eleven lambs, nine wethers, and ten cull ewes were used. The lambs were finished in feedlots, the wethers were maintained on pastures and supplementation, and the cull ewes were maintained on an extensive pasture system with mineral salt ad libitum. Slaughter ages were defined to simulate the most representative products and farming systems. Animals were slaughtered and classified as non- castrated lambs, wethers, and cull ewes. The criteria to slaughter lambs and wethers were the body condition, which ranged from 2.5 to 3.0. Cull ewes were slaughtered based on negative pregnancy diagnosis, regardless of their body condition, which ranged from 4.0 to 4.5. All animals were slaughtered after 16-hours of fasting (solids). The ewes presented the greatest fat thickness, differing significantly from the lambs. The morphometric measures were higher in ewes and lambs. The muscle to fat ratio of the animal’s cuts from different physiological stages presented no significant differences. The indigenous Pantaneiro sheep have good potential for meat production regardless of their physiological stages. The ewes stood out, presenting carcasses with good performance considering their potential and longer permanence in the herd due to their reproductive function.