Effects of feeding browses on growth and meat quality of Korean Black Goats

Effects of feeding browses on growth and meat quality of Korean Black Goats were investigated. Twenty-eight bucks were divided in equal numbers into four treatment groups and fed fibrous diets of oak browse, pine browse, fermented pine browse or rice straw each with concentrate supplement. Metabolic profile, growth rate, feed intake, carcass yield, meat quality and serum were investigated. Average daily gains of bucks were 45.3 g for oak browse, 36.4 g for rice straw, 28.1 g for pine browse and 30.0 g for fermented pine browse. Daily forage intake per goat was 197 g DM for oak browse, which was higher than those for the other diets. Bucks fed fermented pine browse ate only 74 g forage per day. Body metabolism was normal with all sources of browses from the results of serological inspection. Dressing percentage was 45.1–46.2%. Meat percentage was 55.2–55.9% and fat percentage was 7.31% for oak browse which was lower than those for pine browse and fermented pine browse. Shear force of goat meat was 4.11–5.11 kg/cm2 for browses and 6.30 kg/cm2 for rice straw. Cooking loss was 29.6% for pine browse which was lower than the others. Juiciness, tenderness and flavor of the goat meat were the best for the fermented pine browse followed by other browses and rice straw. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.