animals Article Meat Production from Dairy Breed Lambs Due to Slaughter Age and Feeding Plan Based on Wheat Bran Antonino Di Grigoli 1 , Adriana Bonanno 1,* , Mansour Rabie Ashkezary 1, Barbara Laddomada 2, Marco Alabiso 1, Francesca Vitale 1, Francesca Mazza 1, Giuseppe Maniaci 1, Paolo Ruisi 1 and Giuseppe Di Miceli 1 1 Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Sciences (SAAF), University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +39-0912-389-6065 Received: 14 September 2019; Accepted: 25 October 2019; Published: 1 November 2019 Simple Summary: The sheep meat sector in southern Italy, based mainly on light milk-fed lambs, requires technical innovations to improve the production system, the product quality, and enhance the consumption of lamb meat. To fulfill these requirements, this investigation aimed to implement feeding strategies to reduce the cost and energy level of diets for dairy breed lambs slaughtered at an older age than the light lambs, applying a feed restriction at 75% and/or including an inexpensive and local byproduct, such as durum wheat bran (DWB), as a fiber source. The proposed feeding plans were suitable to increase the slaughter age of lambs up to 120 days and produce lean carcasses that, compared to those from 90-day-old lambs, were heavier and with improved meat quality in terms of major water retention and tenderness.