LAUSR

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance, under confinement conditions, of lambs born from ewes fed different energy levels during the final gestation and lactation period. Seventy-one ewes were distributed in two treatments according to the metabolizable energy (ME) levels in the diet: CTL = according to the NRC (2007) recommendations for each stage (gestation and lactation); PLUS = CTL plus 10% of energy per kilogram of dry matter. The total ME intake for the CTL group was 4 and 4.2 Mcal/day during the end of gestation and lactation, respectively, and for the Plus group, the ME intake were 4.8 and 5 Mcal/day. Thirty-five intact male lambs were weaned at 60 days and confined for an additional 60 days. In confinement, lambs were fed ad libitum with the same experimental diet their ewes received. The experimental design was analyzed as randomized complete blocks. The metabolic weight (BW0.75) at the confinement was influenced by maternal nutrition. Lambs of ewes fed with lower energy content were lighter compared to the PLUS group. At the beginning and the end of the confinement, the BW0.75 of the CTL was 8.80 and 15 kg0.75, and the PLUS was 11.4 and 17.6 kg0.75, respectively (P < 0.0001). The maternal diet containing higher energy content resulted in heavier carcass for commercialization. The values of weight gain and feed conversion were not influenced by maternal nutrition (P > 0.005), with mean values of 350 and 4.72 g/d, respectively. We concluded that lambs from ewes fed with greater energy intake had heavier body weights at the beginning and at the end of the confinement, possibly increasing the sustainability of the meat lamb production systems.