Study of the fattening effect of different varieties of silage corn on sheep

The influence of silage corn varieties on sheep production performance, slaughtering performance, and meat quality were studied in the experiment by adding different silage corn varieties to feed weaned lambs to provide a theoretical basis for improved screening of silage corn varieties in lamb fattening. Thirty 4-month-old lambs with similar age, physical condition, and weight were selected, randomly divided into 3 groups of 10, and fed full mixed diets with corn silage as roughage prepared from three maize varieties (‘Yu Silage 23’ ‘Tunyu 168’, and corn forage of traditional variety for corn seed harvest seed solid corn varieties). There were three treatments of the ‘Yu Silage 23’ + Basic diet (Group I), ‘Tunyu 168’ + Basic diet (Group Ⅱ), and corn forage of traditional variety for harvesting corn seed + basic diet (Ⅲ, control group). Lambs were weighed and growth characteristcs were measured every 15 d, and the daily food intake was recorded. After the 60-d trial, five animals were randomly selected in each group for slaughtering and the slaughter performance and meat quality were measured. The results showed that the ‘Tunyu 168’ silage corn has high crude protein (CP) and acetic acid (AA) content, low fiber and ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N), and better silage quality compared to the other varieties. The average daily weight gain of lambs in Group Ⅱ was the highest and was 26.67% and 35.71% higher than that of Group I and the control group, respectively. The ratio of material to weight was the lowest, which was 21.19% and 28.48% lower than that of Group I and the control group, respectively, and the slaughter rate of lambs in treatment I and Ⅱ were significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05) and 6.46% and 6.67% higher than that in the control group, respectively. The pH _{45 min} of the longest dorsal muscle after slaughter in treatment Ⅱ was significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05), and the pH decreased with increased storage time, although the difference between the treatments was not significant. The economic benefit analysis showed that the lamb in treatment Ⅱ was the most profitable, and was 55.09% and 96.06% more profitable than that of Group I and the control, respectively. The fuzzy membership function was comprehensively analyzed to show that under the same basic diet conditions, feeding a diet with ‘Tunyu 168’ silage corn as roughage could significantly improve the production performance and slaughter performance of fattening lambs, thereby improving production efficiency and economic benefits.