Young Salers suckled bull production: effect of diet on performance, carcass and muscle characteristics and meat quality

Abstract

The aim of this work was to improve the knowledge on young suckled Salers bull production and to study the effect of forage type and concentrate level on performance, carcass and muscle characteristics as well as on meat quality. Twenty-four Salers male calves of 150 days of age were assigned to six groups: C0 (fed exclusively with hay and dam’s milk and slaughtered at approximately 6 months of age), and HH (hay – high concentrate), HL (hay – low concentrate), GH (cut grass – high concentrate), GL (cut grass – low concentrate) and CP (control pasture: pasture – high concentrate) groups differing in feeds received until slaughter and slaughtered unweaned at approximately 10 months of age. Carcass weights averaged 210 kg at 10 months of age at slaughter. Average daily weight gain (ADWG) in HH and GH groups tended to be higher (P = 0.09) than in HL and GL groups (1354 v. 1248 g/day). ADWG in CP group (1542 g/day) was higher (P 0.05). The ratio between n-6 and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid content was lower (P = 0.01) in the low-concentrate-fed than in the high-concentrate-fed group (3.95 v. 5.37, respectively). Sensory analysis noted that longissimus thoracis muscle from CP animals was more tender and juicy than that from HH and GH animals (P < 0.05).

Keywords

• carcass
• concentrates
• forage type
• meat quality
• suckled bulls