Increasing shade area in feedlot heifers during heat stress: physiological and performance parameters.

Heat stress is a great challenge for feedlot operations established in arid zones. The aim of this study was to evaluate if increasing shade area in the pen improved physiological and productive variables in feedlot heifers under hot climate. A total of 510 European and Zebu heifers were randomly assigned to six pens which were divided in two treatments: (1) three pens with 100 heifers each with a shade area of 2.

Digestion and deposition of individual fatty acids in growing-finishing pigs fed diets containing either beef tallow or sunflower oil.

The apparent digestibility and deposition in carcass of individual dietary fatty acids (FA) were determined in growing-finishing pigs fed diets containing either beef tallow or sunflower oil. The beef tallow was rich in saturated FA (SFA) and the sunflower oil had a high content of polyunsaturated FA (PUFA). A total of 39 barrows was used.

Effect of dietary fat type on meat quality and fatty acid composition of various tissues in growing-finishing swine.

Thirty-six castrated male growing pigs were used to study the effect of dietary beef tallow (BT) versus sunflower oil (SO) on meat quality and fatty acid composition of various tissues. The diets used contained either 5% (w/w) of the variable fat source. The fat type had no significant effect on carcass traits (carcass weight, back-fat thickness, fat-lean ratio) and meat quality (colour, pH(1), pH(U), drip losses, cooking losses, shear force, sacromere length, loin moisture, loin marbling).