This experiment was carried out to study costs and economical return of carcass lamb (kg) production in two finishing systems. The systems compared were, a grazing system based on "coast cross" pasture (Cynodon dactylon) with the following genotypes: 13 Corriedale (C). 14 Bergamacia x Corriedale (BC), and 9 Hampshire Down x Corriedale {HC}, and a dry-lot system with the following crossbreeds : 10 C, 11 BC, and 8 HC. In the dry-lot system the lambs were fed with a total mix ration, containing the some leveis ofcrude protein and total digestible nutrients of the pasture. The stock rate in the pasture was 20 lambs/ha. In the dry-lot was used an área of 0.5m²/lamb and the lambs were housed in a suspenso and siated floor facitity. The total costs in the graang system was US$ 1985.33, and in the dry-lot system was US$ 2432.00. The total incarne for the grazing system was US$ 3072.42, and for dry-lot system was US$ 3748.35. The production cost/carcass kg was very similar for both systems (US$ 1.92, dry-lot; US$ 1.88, pasture). The economical retum was US$ 229.28 higher for dry-lot (US$ 1316.36) m relation to pasture (US$ 1087.08). These results show that the production ofiamb meat in dry-lot systems is viable.
lamb meat; production costs; production system
