Genetical and environmental factors affecting slaughter traits in beef production experiments in field

Authors

• Hilkka Kenttämies University of Helsinki, Department of Animal breeding, 00710 Helsinki

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.72150

Abstract

During the years 1971-77 the carcass weight of fattening calves delivered from dairy herds increased by 40kg. During the same period the differencies between areas grew smaller. The growth rate and carcass traits were affected by feed type of the farm, rearing time, sex of the calf and breed of sire. In comparison with the Ayrshire bulls, the carcass weight of contemporary Charolais bulls was 16 and of Friesian 12%-units higher, but of Finncattle bulls 7%-units lower. Differencies between heifers were still larger. The growth rate of Ch and Fr remained on a high level longer than that of Ay and Fc. The heritability estimates of Ay and (Fr) were .23 (.61) for carcass weight,.39 (.77) for net growth, .14 (.15) for carcass score and .06 (.26) for fatness score. Differencies between farms within feed type consisted of about 50 % of the variation in growth rate and carcass weight, and about 25 % in carcass scores. Feeding was more consistent on farms with mere indoor feeding than on farms where the animals were also kept on pasture.