REVISÃO DE LITERATURA: DESEMPENHO E CARACTERÍSTICAS DE CARCAÇA DE CORDEIROS TERMINADOS A PASTO E EM CONFINAMENTO

Abstract

The objective was to highlight the performance and carcass characteristics of lambs in Brazil finished in pasture and feedlot systems. Brazil has 18 million lambs, with the highest concentration in the Northeast Region with 64.2%. The demand for sheep meat is increasing and there is a lack of technologies for placing meat on the market and with the increase in demand, it is necessary to include technologies and management strategies in production systems. The breeding systems can be in confinement or grazing, being the forages cultivated or native and with or without feed supplementation, the choice of the breeding system depends on several zootechnical factors, such as forage availability, size of the herd, age of slaughter and climatic region. It is necessary to evaluate the economic aspects of finishing lambs for grazing and feedlot, which appears to be profitable may not support the activity over the years. The pasture production system aims to lower the cost, however, in order to achieve a good result in this system, it is necessary to technify to be able to meet the requirements of the animals. The confinement of lambs has been widely used in Brazil, allowing greater availability of meat with the short time contributing to the market and with a good quality product, better efficiency in sanitary control, higher carcass quality, maintenance of the forage supply in the period of scarcity and regularity in production. Lambs can be finished in pasture or in confinement, presenting advantages and disadvantages for both systems.