The growth performance, body and carcass composition of charolais young bulls at three different weight endpoints

Harangi, Sándor – Béri, Béla – Popp, József

Keywords: beef cattle, growth performance, weight categories, meat/bone/fat ratio

The aim of our study was to evaluate the growth performance, body and carcass composition of Charolais young bulls at three different weight endpoints. Target slaughter weights were 500, 600 and 700 kg (light, medium and heavyweight categories). During the fattening period bulls were raised and fattened under identical conditions until they reached the desired slaughter weight. Seven animals from each group with the weights of 508 kg; 603 kg; 692 kg were slaughtered. Body weights and daily gains were measured in subsequent periods of the experiment and the post-slaughter evaluation was carried out. The quantity and ratio of various tissues and first, second and third grade meat were measured. Even in the event of fattening to heavy live weight, young male animals were able to achieve high daily weight gain similar to other two groups. Dressing percentage was calculated in two different ways. Dressing percentage I (hot carcass weight/slaughter weight) of 57.6% of the lightweight group significantly fell behind that of the two other groups (59.7%; 60.6%) (P<0.01). Dressing percentage II was defined as the proportion of hot carcass weight and empty body weight. Similarly, in this case the lightweight group (63.3%) lagged behind the results of medium and heavyweight groups (65.0% and 65.8%) (P<0.01). On average, the EUROP system classified the carcasses into “U0” conformation category. With its “2+” qualification, the heavyweight group featured a higher amount of fat compared to the two other groups (P<0.05). The bulls of medium and heavy weights performed more favourable lean meat ratio than those in the lightweight group (P<0.05). In contrast, the ratio of fat dissected failed to show any significant differences. However, the lean meat/bone ratio of the lightweight group fell behind that of the medium and heavyweight groups (P<0.01). The ratio of first grade meat could not demonstrate statistically significant differences.

Full article