How Can Production Systems Affect Quality of Beef Meat
The Effect of Beef Production System on the Health, Performance, Carcass Characteristics, and Meat Quality of Holstein Bulls
1
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Large Park, Hillsborough, Co Down BT 26 6DR, Northern Ireland, UK
2
Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queens University Belfast, Belfast BT9 5DL, Northern Ireland, UK
3
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Newforge Lane, Belfast BT9 5PX, Northern Ireland, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 21 September 2020 / Revised: 14 October 2020 / Accepted: 17 October 2020 / Published: 19 October 2020
(This article belongs to the Section Cattle)
Simple Summary
Dairy-origin beef accounts for a considerable proportion of the prime beef supply. Yet, the beef production potential of dairy bred calves is declining following years of single trait selection for attributes such as milk yield. Producing these animals as bulls allows for increased growth rates and efficiency in comparison to steers, however these systems often involve a high level of concentrate feeding. Thus, creating a system that is subject to fluctuating feed prices and beef market volatility. This objective of this study was to evaluate four production systems, which differed in terms of diet during the grower period. The impacts on health, performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality were all considered. Our research shows that ad libitum concentrate feeding throughout the production system resulted in superior carcass weights. Increasing the proportion of grazed grass in the diet during the grower period, did result in a reduced carcass weight in comparison to ad libitum concentrates, however total concentrate intake, and therefore the production costs during the grower period were also reduced. Production system had no effect on health or meat quality. In conclusion, including a gazing period within bull beef production systems may be a more sustainable approach to producing Holstein bulls.
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of production system on the health, performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality of autumn born (AB) and spring born (SB) Holstein bulls. The study involved a total of 224 Holstein bulls and was conducted over two years (2017/18, 2018/19). The four production system treatments differed during the grower period and consisted of: (i) grazed with no concentrate supplementation (G), (ii) grazed with 2 kg concentrate supplementation per day (G2), (iii) grazed with ad libitum access to concentrates (GA) and (iv) housed with ad libitum access to concentrates and grass silage (HA). All bulls were finished on ad libitum concentrates and grass silage and were slaughtered at a mean age of 15.5 months. Total grower dry matter intake (DMI) (p < 0.001) and total finishing DMI (p < 0.001) differed between production systems for both AB and SB bulls, with that of GA bulls being the greatest in both cases. Average daily gain (ADG) during the grower period was greatest (p < 0.001) for the HA production system in the AB bulls and the GA and HA production systems for the SB bulls. However, during the finishing period, G bulls had the greatest (p < 0.001) ADG of the AB bulls, while that of the SB bulls was from the G2 production system (p < 0.001). For both AB and SB, bulls on the GA and HA production systems produced heavier cold carcass weights than the G and G2 bulls (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in health, carcass conformation, fat classification, or meat quality between production systems. View Full-Text
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
Share and Cite
MDPI and ACS Style
Rutherford, N.H.; Gordon, A.W.; Arnott, G.; Lively, F.O. The Effect of Beef Production System on the Health, Performance, Carcass Characteristics, and Meat Quality of Holstein Bulls. Animals 2020, 10, 1922. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10101922
AMA Style
Rutherford NH, Gordon AW, Arnott G, Lively FO. The Effect of Beef Production System on the Health, Performance, Carcass Characteristics, and Meat Quality of Holstein Bulls. Animals. 2020; 10(10):1922. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10101922
Chicago/Turabian Style
Rutherford, Naomi H., Alan W. Gordon, Gareth Arnott, and Francis O. Lively. 2020. "The Effect of Beef Production System on the Health, Performance, Carcass Characteristics, and Meat Quality of Holstein Bulls" Animals 10, no. 10: 1922. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10101922
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Article Metrics
Article Access Statistics
For more information on the journal statistics, click here.
Multiple requests from the same IP address are counted as one view.
Source: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/10/1922
0 Response to "How Can Production Systems Affect Quality of Beef Meat"
Post a Comment