The effects of feeding system and breed on the performance and meat quality of weaned lambs

•Local, AKK lambs appeared to utilize lower quality feed more efficiently than AMR.•High CLA content of meat from pasture-fed AKK lambs suggest positive human health benefits.•Feeding winter annual cereal forages during awn emergence and anthesis growth stages reduces the DMI and LWG substantially.•Irrigated pasture feeding system had the lower feed-related water use efficiency for LWG than annual forages and concentrate. Selecting proper animal genotype that suits particular environment, management systems, market requirements and food processing is a fundamental step to achieve efficiency in livestock operations. Thus, this study compared the performance and meat quality of the fat-tailed, Akkaraman (AKK) and crossbred, Anatolian Merino (AMR) lambs under the feeding systems of annual forage mixture (AFM), perennial pastures (PAS) or concentrated-based (CON). There were no consistent breed differences for liveweight gain (LWG) but AKK lambs that were fed AFM had greater NDF intake and digestibility than AMR lambs (P < 0.01). Lambs that consumed forage-based diets had lower slaughter weights and weight-related carcass traits than lambs on CON (P