Performance, eating behavior and carcass characteristics of feedlot lambs fed diets without forage containing sodium bicarbonate

Abstract The study was carried out to evaluate the effect of inclusion of sodium bicarbonate (SB) in diets based on ground corn without forage for feedlot lambs. Twenty-eight ram lambs (Dorper x Santa Inês), with initial body weight of 30.2 ± 4.5 kg and 94 ± 8.4 days old were used. They were assigned to a randomized complete block design. Experimental diets were positive control, diet without forage containing soybeans hulls replacing ground flint corn in 400g/kg of dry matter (DM) (CONT); and three diets without forage based on ground flint corn containing 10 (10SB), 20 (20SB) or 30 (30SB) g/kg DM of SB. The inclusion of SB quadratically increased final body weight (P = 0.02), dry matter intake (DMI; P < 0.01), average daily gain (P < 0.01), feed eficiency (P < 0.01), slaughter body weight (P = 0.02), hot and cold carcass weight (P = 0.02), loin muscle area (P = 0.05), leg compacity index (P = 0.05) and the weights of: neck (P = 0.01), shoulder (P = 0.02), rib (P = 0.03) and leg (P = 0.01), with higher values for the 20SB. Feeding SB linearly decreased the area (P < 0.01) and height (P = 0.01) of the papillae. The use of SB improved the performance and increased hot and cold carcass weights, with better results observed in the 20 g/kg level (20SB), showing to be efficient in diets without forage for feedlot lambs.