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Pasture-based finishing of early-maturing sired suckler beef bulls at 15 or 19 months of age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2017

C. Lenehan ,
A. P. Moloney ,
E. G. O’Riordan ,
A. Kelly  and
M. McGee
C. Lenehan
Affiliation:
Teagasc, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Grange, Dunsany, Co. Meath, Ireland School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
A. P. Moloney
Affiliation:
Teagasc, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Grange, Dunsany, Co. Meath, Ireland
E. G. O’Riordan
Affiliation:
Teagasc, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Grange, Dunsany, Co. Meath, Ireland
A. Kelly
Affiliation:
School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
M. McGee*
Affiliation:
Teagasc, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Grange, Dunsany, Co. Meath, Ireland
*
†E-mail: mark.mcgee@teagasc.ie
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Abstract

The performance of early-maturing breed sired suckler bulls finished at pasture, with or without concentrate supplementation, at 15 or 19 months of age was evaluated. In total, 60 Aberdeen Angus-sired bulls were assigned to a two (slaughter age (SA): 15 (S15) or 19 (S19) months)×two (finishing strategies (FS): grass only or grass+barley-based concentrate) factorial arrangement. There were no (P>0.05) SA×FS interactions. Increasing SA increased carcass weight (265 v. 355 kg), kill-out proportion (542 v. 561 g/kg), conformation (6.7 v. 8.3, 1 to 15) (P<0.001) and fat (5.8 v. 6.8) scores (P<0.01), and resulted in yellower subcutaneous fat (‘b’ value, 6.6 v. 8.3) and darker muscle (‘L’ value, 30.0 v. 28.3) (P<0.01). Supplementation reduced estimated herbage intake by 0.60 and 0.47 kg dry matter (DM)/kg DM of concentrates for S15 and S19, respectively. Supplementation increased carcass weight (+6.7%, P<0.001) and kill-out proportion (+1.8%, P=0.06) but had no effect on carcass fat and conformation scores or fat and muscle colour. In conclusion, carcasses were adequately finished, with or without concentrates for S19, but not for S15. Supplementation had no effect, and age had relatively minor effects, on fat and muscle colour.

Keywords

beef cattlecarcassconcentrate supplementationgrazingpasture
Type
Full Paper
Information
Advances in Animal Biosciences , Volume 8 , Supplement s1: Improving the quality and sustainability of beef production , October 2017 , pp. s28 - s32
Copyright
© The Animal Consortium 2017 

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