Table 1 Characterization of intake and growth performance in lambs with high, medium, and low residual feed intake (RFI).

From: Association of residual feed intake with growth and slaughtering performance, blood metabolism, and body composition in growing lambs

Trait

RFI group 1

SE 2

P -value

Low

Medium

High

No. of animals

42

54

41

  

RFI, kg/d

−0.10c

0.00b

0.11a

0.05

 < 0.0001

Feed conversion ratio, kg of DM/kg of BW gain

4.51c

4.84b

5.39a

0.01

<0.0001

DMI, kg/d

1.09c

1.25b

1.33a

0.02

<0.0001

Metabolic BW, kg0.75

12.97

13.18

13.16

0.11

0.724

ADG, kg/d

0.25

0.26

0.26

0.00

0.108

Initial BW, kg

24.44

24.76

24.94

0.34

0.933

Final BW, kg

36.66

37.66

37.34

0.39

0.935

Relative growth3, %

40.33

41.9

40.25

0.51

0.303

  1. a–cLeast square means within a row with different superscripts differ significantly (P < 0.05). 1High = RFI was > 0.5 SD above the mean; Medium = RFI was 0.5 SD above and below the mean; Low = RFI was < 0.5 SD below the mean. 2SE = pooled SE. 3Relative growth = 2(W2 − W1)/(W1 + W2) *100%, W1 = Initial BW, W2 = Final BW.
Back to article page