2.3. Statistical analyses
Data for each experiment were separately subjected to analysis
of variance using Genstat (Release 12.1, VSN International, Hemel
Hempstead, UK). The model used for experiment 1 had block and
treatment as main effects. The effects of the level of inclusion of
MS in the total silage portion of the ration were partitioned using
orthogonal polynomials. For the meat quality data in experiment 2,
a model appropriate for a split-plot design was used. Block and silage
type were in the main plot and the concentration of sunflower oil and
type of silage by sunflower oil interaction were in the sub-plot. As
there were no important effects of sunflower oil inclusion and no sunflower
oil inclusion by silage type interaction, the main effect of silage
type only (n = 15/silage) is presented in the text. As there were
effects of sunflower oil inclusion on the fatty acid profile of LT (see
Noci et al., 2005), the fatty acid data relating to the silages not
supplemented with sunflower oil were extracted from the dataset
of Noci et al. (2005) and analysed using a model that had block and
silage type as main effects. For data from the sensory analysis in
both experiments, the values for a particular trait for an individual
sample were averaged across assessors and the mean values used in
the models described above.