Effects of soybean curd residue and rice bran on lamb performance, health, and meat quality.

Recycling food by-products as animal feed could decrease livestock production costs. We investigated how replacing conventional corn and wheat bran feed (control) with rice bran and soybean curd residue (RBSR) would influence lamb performance and meat quality. Eleven lambs were divided into the control and the RBSR-fed groups. The amount of feed consumed by the lambs, as well as their body weight, nutrient properties (total protein, non-esterified fatty acid, total cholesterol, glucose concentrations) in blood samples, and fecal condition were evaluated. Meat quality (water holding capacity, cooking loss, fat content, and shear force) of their carcasses were also evaluated. Results shows daily body weight gain per lamb in the RBSR-fed group was approximately 2.2-fold than that in the control group. The mean total blood protein and glucose concentrations exhibited increasing trends after feeding with RBSR. In addition, the shear force of the meat was significantly lower and crude fat content was significantly higher in RBSR-fed lambs than in lamb fed the control feed. The study concluded that, RBSR could replace conventional feed for Japanese sheep and can be used to not only reduce feed and disposal costs but also increase animal production and meat quality.