Growth and carcass composition of Friesian, Limousin × Friesian and Blonde d'Aquitaine × Friesian steers

Abstract

One hundred and twenty spring-born steers comprising 40 Friesians (FR), 40 Limousin x Friesians (LM), and 40 Blonde d'Aquitaine x Friesians (BL), were reared together from shortly after birth to slaughter at a mean age of 771 days. They were at pasture in summer and were housed and offered grass silage plus concentrates in winter. All were implanted with anabolic agents. During the finishing winter, there was a 3 (breed types) x 2 (3 or 6 kg concentrates per day) x 2 (94 or 181 day finishing period) factorial arrangement of treatments.Slaughter weights per day of age, carcass weights per day of age and carcass weights of FR, LM and BL were 846, 828 and 866 (s.e. 8-0) g, 464, 476 and 497 (s.e. 4-9) g and 358, 368 and 385 (s.e. 3-8) kg respectively. LM had lower carcass length, carcass depth, leg length and leg width values than FR or BL but when these measurements were expressed per kg carcass weight the values for LM and BL were similar. Both LM and BL had better carcass conformation than FR, and BL had a lower carcass fat score than either FR or LM between which there was no difference. FR, LM and BL had carcass lean, fat and higher-priced lean proportions of 634, 669 and 685 (s.e. 3-7), 185, 168 and 144 (s.e. 3-7) and 352, 361 and 361 (s.e. 1-4) g/kg respectively.Increasing the concentrate level from 3 to 6 kg per day increased side weight by 9-6 kg (P < 0-001). This consisted of 0-6 kg bone, 3-3 kg lean and 5-7 kg fat. Extending the finishing period from 94 to 181 days increased side weight by 30-3 kg (P < 0-001). This consisted of 2-6 kg bone, 12-0 kg lean and 15-7 kg fat. Allometric regression coefficients for side lean, bone and fat weights on side weight were not significantly affected by breed type or concentrate level. The coefficients for lean, bone and fat were 0-80 (s.e. 0-04), 0-58 (s.e. 0-05) and 2-27 (s.e. 0-16) respectively. The coefficients for weights of lean in the hind-shin, fore-shin, fillet and brisket on side lean weight were 0-8 or lower. The corresponding coefficients for silverside, inside round, knuckle, rump and strip-loin were between 0-8 and 1-0 while the flank, shoulder, neck, chuck, plate, fore-rib and cube-roll had coefficients in the range 1-0 to 1-5.

A comparison of the growth and carcass traits between dairy and dairy × beef breed crossbred heifers reared for beef production

“…For example, the superiority of the Hol × Li and Hol × Ba crossbred heifers for carcass conformation compared to pure dairy heifers corresponded to the results reported by Keane et al (1989) with Friesian, Friesian × Limousin and Friesian × Blonde d'Aquitaine steers. Furthermore, Keane and More O'Ferrall (1992) observed that Friesian × Hereford and Friesian × Simmental steers conformed 36 and 40% better than purebred Friesians, respectively.…”

“…Other studies have also shown that the late maturing breed type cattle have higher proportions of high value joints than early maturing breed crosses or pure dairy breeds (Keane et al, 1989Keane and More O'Ferrall, 1992). The higher lean and lower fat contents in the carcasses of the Friesian × Li than in Friesian cattle have reported Kempster et al (1988), Keane et al (1989) and Steen and Kilpatrick (1995).…”

“…For example, Roux et al (1987) observed that the crossbred Friesian × Charolais heifers showed improved growth, resulting in heavier and leaner carcasses at the same age compared to purebred Friesian heifers. However, it can be inferred from data compiled by Kempster and Southgate (1984) and Keane et al (1989) that there was little difference in growth rate between Friesians and Limousin crosses in some trials. Also Andersen et al (1977) found that Limousin cross young bulls from dairy cows had lower daily liveweight gains than and similar daily carcass gains as Danish Red and White young bulls.…”

“…Crossbreeding between dairy cows and beef-breed bulls has improved carcass production compared to pure dairy breeds in several experiments during many decades (e.g., More O'Ferrall and Aass and Vangen, 1998;Keane and Allen, 2002;Huuskonen et al, 2013). Generally, proportions of hind quarter and/or proportions of hind quarter lean or muscle tissue are higher for beef crosses than for purebred Friesians so crossbreds have produced more valuable carcasses (Keane et al, 1989;Keane, 1994).…”

Adult steers for beef production: breed effect on animal performance, retail yield and carcass quality

“…In this sense, Asturiana de los Valles is considered a rustic breed but specialized in meat production as was reported by Sañudo et al (2004) and Albertí et al (2005). In spite of the difficulties to make valid comparisons of lean distribution between laboratories in different countries because of differences in the jointing procedure, in general our data are consistent with the general consensus that continental meat breeds have a higher content of their lean in the hind quarter or pistola or higher priced cuts than dairy or rustic breed types (Keane et al, 1982;Kempster et al, 1982;Keane and Allen, 2002;Chambaz et al, 2003). Our results are consistent with Keane et al (1982), who found that better conformation of meat breeds was reflected in higher yields of saleable meat, so a significant correlation between conformation score and First category cuts percentage was observed (r = 0.73; P < 0.001).…”