The aim of this study was to evaluate carcass characteristics of Santa Inês lambs, maintained in native pasture and submitted to different supplementation levels in the diet (1,5%, 1,0% e 0,0% do LW). Twenty-four castrated sheep with 15 ±1,44 kg of mean live weight (LW) were used and average age of 150 days. The concentrate was constituted of cracked corn, soybean meal and mineral salt. A completely randomized design with three treatment and eight replicates was used. The use of the supplementation makes possible to get lambs with desirable characteristics of the carcass, such as: better yield, increase rib eye area, less lose of weight in the cooling, and greater weight of retail cuts. According to the economical analysis it may be concluded that, if the aim is to get lighter carcasses with weight around 7 kg and with minimum level of fat there is not any necessity of supplementation with concentrate, but, if the aim is to get the carcasses weighing from 10 to 12 kg and with better level of finishing, it is recommended supplementation with 1,0 to 1,5% of the live weight with concentrate.
Lambs; leg; retail cuts; semi-arid; yield
