Changes in the body composition of cattle exhibiting compensatory growth and the modifying effects of grazing management

Baker, Robert D.; Young, N. E.; Laws, J. A.

doi:10.1017/s0003356100036369

Cited by 33 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The phenomenon of animals showing enhanced performance after periods of nutritional restriction has been known for many years and has been comprehensively reviewed (Wilson and Osbourn, 1960;Allden, 1970;O'Donovan, 1984). Several explanations have been proposed as to the cause of this compensation including reduced maintenance requirements (Saubidet and Verde, 1976), alterations of the composition of tissue gains (Thompson, Bickel and Schiirch, 1982;Baker, Young and Laws, 1985) and increased food intake (Meyer, Hull, Weitkamp and Bonilla, 1965). In the present experiments, a reduction in winter food level led to increased herbage intake at pasture and increased live-weight gains.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 45%

“…It is probably that the higher growth rates of cattle exhibiting compensatory growth are only partly due to enhanced intakes since it has been demonstrated that during compensatory growth cattle deposit more protein and water (Baker et al, 1985). When steers that had been restricted were realimenated on the same level of intake in relation to live weight as control steers they still exhibited higher growth rates indicating that the energy concentration of the liveweight gain was lower (Thompson et al, 1982).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effect of winter food level on compensatory growth of weaned, suckled calves grazed at two sward heights

Wright¹,

Russel²,

Hunter³

1986

Anim. Sci.

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1986). The effect of winter food level on compensatory growth of weaned, suckled calves grazed at two sward heights. ABSTRACTTwo experiments were conducted with weaned, suckled calves to investigate the effect of feeding level during the post-weaning winter on their subsequent performance when continuously grazed on pasture maintained at two sward heights. Low, medium and high levels of winter feeding resulted in winter live-weight gains of 0-31, 0-58 and 0-79 (s.e. 0-027) kg/day (P < 0-001) during the 152-day winter in experiment 1 and 0-44, 0-69 and 0-84 (s.e. 0-029) kg/day (P < 0-001) for 189 days in experiment 2. During summer (93 days in experiment 1 and 87 days in experiment 2) there was a significant effect of winter food level on performance when live-weight gains were 1-10, 1-02, 0-87 and 1-35, 1-23 and 1-19 (s.e. 0-060) kg/day for the low, medium and high winter food levels on the short and tall swards respectively in experiment 1 (P < 001) and 0-86, 0-66, 0-51 and 1-26, 1-18 and 0-91 (s.e. 0090) kg/day in experiment 2 (P < 0-001). The cattle showing compensatory growth had higher herbage intakes and it is postulated that this occurred because of a negative association between body fat and herbage intake. Sward height had a large positive effect on herbage intake and live-weight gain and it is concluded that for maximum intake on ryegrass swards, herbage height should be at least 8 cm. Lower levels of winter live-weight gain delayed the time to slaughter, but allowed cattle to achieve heavier carcass weights at a fixed level of fatness.It is concluded that there is no single optimum winter food level for weaned, suckled calves but that the choice will depend upon several factors, including availability of winter and summer food resources, the length of the winter feeding period, the desired date of slaughter and type of carcass to be produced.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 45%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of winter food level on compensatory growth of weaned, suckled calves grazed at two sward heights

Wright¹,

Russel²,

Hunter³

1986

Anim. Sci.

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“…However, the exact cause of the phenomenon in cattle has been the subject of much debate. Compensatory growth has been associated with reduced maintenance requirements (Saubidet and Verde, 1976;Ledger and Sayers, 1977), increased food intake (Meyer et al, 1965;O'Donovan et al, 1972;Wright et al, 1986Wright et al, , 1987 and changes in the composition of tissue gained (Meyer et al, 1965;Fox et aL, 1972;Baker et al, 1985).…”

Section: Body Condition Scorementioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of age of fattening and body condition of draught oxen fed teff straw (Eragrostis teff) based diets

Osuji¹,

Capper²

1992

Trop Anim Health Prod

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Twenty-four Ethiopian Highland Zebu (Bos indicus) oxen were allocated to 6 groups of 4 animals each on the basis of liveweight, age and body condition according to a completely randomised block design. The animals were group-fed an experimental diet consisting of (g/kg) 551 g concentrate and 449 g teff straw, at the rate of 2.5 kg per 100 kg of liveweight for 18 weeks. They were weighed and condition scored weekly. Feeding levels were adjusted weekly. The daily liveweight gain of each animal was estimated using regression analysis and changes in condition score evaluated. Age significantly affected the liveweight gains and body condition score changes of the oxen. There was a significant (P < 0.001) linear effect of age on average liveweight gain. The average daily gains were 0.62, 0.51 and 0.41 kg/day for animals aged 4 to 5, 7 to 8 and 10 to 11 years respectively. Age exhibited a significant (P < 0.05) quadratic effect on body condition changes. The results are discussed in terms of benefits from traction and fattening and farm system implications of fattening younger animals for reproduction and improved feeding.

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“…The non-productive animals are subjected to various degrees of undernutrition in different seasons of the year (Chaturvedi et al, 2008) and hence re-alimentation increases gut fill besides some functional or structural changes in internal organs, particularly liver, kidney, heart and digestive tract (Baker et al, 1985). Studies on meat quality also indicate that a high growth rate before slaughter has a positive impact on meat tenderness (Muir et al, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-alimentation strategy to manoeuvre body condition and carcass characteristics in cull ewes

Bhatt

Soren

Sahoo

et al. 2012

Animal

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Improvement in body condition and carcass traits through nutritional intervention was studied in cull ewes. Sixty-eight adult nonproductive Malpura ewes (average body weight 26.7 6 0.33 kg) were randomly divided into four equal groups: G0 maintained on free grazing for 8 h on protected natural rangeland with ad libitum guar (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba) straw (GS) after grazing; G1, G2 and G3 fed with supplemental concentrate at the rate of 250 g, 2.5% of live weight (LW) and ad libitum, respectively. The experiment was continued for 90 days and daily feed intake, weekly LW and body condition score (BCS) were recorded. Intake and digestibility of nutrients were assessed by indicator method. Rumen fermentation attributes and blood biochemical profile were studied to assess the dietary effects and animals were slaughtered at the end of experiment for evaluation of carcass characteristics. Higher dry matter (DM) intake and improvement in plane of nutrition was observed in G2 and G3 with a higher LW gain (LWG) and improvement in BCS than in G0. The digestibility of DM, organic matter, CP, ADF and cellulose was higher (P , 0.05) in G2 and G3 than in G0. A lower ruminal pH and ammonia N but higher total N and trichloroacetic acid-precipitable N, an increase in holotrichs, spirotrichs and total protozoa population, increase in haemoglobin but decrease in serum total cholesterol and non-esterified fatty acids were observed in high-concentrate-fed groups. Carcass attributes revealed increase (P , 0.05) in empty LW, dressing yield, eye muscle area, subcutaneous and intramuscular fat, decrease in shear force value and higher (P , 0.05) protein content in Longissimus dorsi muscle in test groups than in the control. Above all, the G2 animals had better rumen environment and blood biochemical attributes and consumed more feed with enhanced digestibility that supported higher LWG at better feed conversion efficiency, improvement in BCS and carcass quality. Thus, re-alimentation of cull ewes with challenged feeding of concentrate at 2.5% of LW on a basal roughage diet for a period of 3 months may have promise for better economic return to the farmers with possibly meeting quality mutton for human consumption.

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Changes in the body composition of cattle exhibiting compensatory growth and the modifying effects of grazing management

Cited by 33 publications

References 16 publications

The effect of winter food level on compensatory growth of weaned, suckled calves grazed at two sward heights

The effect of winter food level on compensatory growth of weaned, suckled calves grazed at two sward heights

Effect of age of fattening and body condition of draught oxen fed teff straw (Eragrostis teff) based diets

Re-alimentation strategy to manoeuvre body condition and carcass characteristics in cull ewes

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