Table 2.

Effects of increasing substitute alfalfa hay (AH) with hemp forage (HF) on growth performance, carcass traits and meat quality of Xiangdong black goats.

Item	Treatments1				SEM	P-value2
	CON	HF5	HF10	HF20		T	L	Q
Growth performance
Initial BW, kg	7.72	7.98	7.85	7.75	0.355	0.876	0.903	0.535
Final BW, kg	12.88	13.62	13.27	13.08	0.309	0.406	0.996	0.207
ADG, g/d	86.11	93.89	90.28	88.89	4.022	0.594	0.904	0.323
DMI, g/d	432.9a	404.4ab	384.7bc	365.8c	14.48	0.023	<0.01	0.371
F:G, kg/kg	5.09a	4.30b	4.27b	4.15b	0.163	<0.01	<0.01	0.210
Carcass traits
Carcass weight, kg	4.86	4.96	5.19	5.01	0.280	0.871	0.705	0.522
Dressing, %	37.71	36.51	39.14	38.33	2.123	0.854	0.723	0.914
Eye muscle area, cm2	5.28	4.44	5.95	4.65	0.522	0.196	0.695	0.433
Meat quality
pH	6.35	6.58	6.37	6.54	0.752	0.989	0.994	0.999
Drip loss, %	8.17b	9.67ab	8.67ab	12.50a	1.568	0.045	0.074	0.556
Cooking loss, %	34.33	38.33	31.83	34.00	2.016	0.178	0.472	0.926
Shear force, N	65.66b	73.15b	92.85a	58.40b	6.570	<0.01	0.445	<0.01
Meat color
L∗	51.42	48.07	50.14	50.32	1.733	0.592	0.957	0.408
a∗	17.34	19.28	18.06	17.66	1.075	0.608	0.860	0.382
b∗	6.92	5.91	6.51	6.09	0.515	0.524	0.435	0.632

^{a, b} Means least square of means within a row with different superscripts differ (P ≤ 0.05).

¹CON = 60% AH without HF; HF5 = 55% AH + 5% HF; HF10 = 50% AH + 10% HF; HF20 = 40% AH + 20% HF; AH, alfalfa hay; HF, hemp forage.

²T = treatment; L = linear; Q = quadratic; CON was included in L and Q analysis.