Background:

Forage and feedstuff technologies with additives contributed to more efficient nutrition of herbivores.

Aim.

To evaluate the productive performance and organoleptic quality of meat from covies fed forages and feedstuffs containing various levels of oregano.

Methods:

This paper consisted of two studies, one on El Romeral Farm, Guachapala Canton, the University of Cuenca, located on S 2o45’54”, W 78o42'58", 2 254 m above sea level. Another study was developed in sheds belonging to Molihers food processing factory in Ochoa Leon, on S 2o49’48”, W 78o59’12”, 2 600 m above sea level. The control (T1) consisted of feeds for covies (Molihers); the other treatment (T2) relied on phytogenics at a rate of 2 kg/ton. Treatment 3 (T3) used phytogenics (3 kg/ton), whereas treatment 4 (T4) contained phytogenic products (5 kg/ton). All the treatments had 13.5% protein. A completely randomized experimental design was used, along with one-way ANOVA. The final weight was measured after 115 days.

Results:

No significant differences were found between the treatments for the final weight in the two trials. There were no differences in the organoleptic quality indexes, except for the color and crust for the Molihers in T3 and T4.

Conclusions:

The nutrition of covies using alfalfa and feeds containing phytogenic product additives such as oregano at 3 and 4 kg.t dose of the feed proved effective. The final weights were similar to the control animals, and the organoleptic characteristics of meat were not affected, due to the organic principles in the oregano supplemented.