Effect of castration age on slaughtering performance of Piemontese male cattle

Abstract

Calves castration represents an old and traditional practice to obtain animal work force, but for technical, economic and social reasons in the last half of the 20th century it was left. The recent renewal of Piemontese steers rearing in the breed’s native diffusion area, for quality meat production (Biagini et al., 2001), has been spurred also for the interest in local typical dishes. Traditionally, in Piedmont calves were castrated before puberty (about 6 month of age), but now also later (12-14 month of age) to benefit by the bull higher growing rate.

Keywords

• Piemontese steers, typical products, early and late castration