Effects of grazing starting age at growing stage and roughages at finishing stage on growth performance and beef quality in Hanwoo steers
Cho, W.M.; Hong, S.K.; Lee, J.M.; Paek, B.H.
Korean Journal of Animal Science 39(4): 375-382
1997
Accession: 003118611
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of grazing starting age (6 and 9 months of age) at growing stage and roughages types at finishing stage on growth performance and beef quality in Hanwoo steers. Thirty nine steers were allocated to a control (T-1) and four treatment groups which were fed rice straw (T-2 and T-4) or grass hay (T-3 and T-5) ad libitum and water was provided continuously. Concentrates were fed at 1.8% level of live body weight during 15-18 months and ad libitum from the 19th month. The results obtained were as follows: The daily gain of T-1 was lower (0.8 kg) than those of treatment steers (0.9 kg) and the amount of concentrate intake per kg gain during 15-24 months in T-1 was higher than those of treatments, also as dry matter basis obtained the same results, especially the treatments of T-3 and T-5 were lower (9.4 and 9.1 kg) than those of T-2 and T-4 (10.5 kg). The body weight gain of the 6 months groups was higher than that of the 9 month groups (p lt 0.05). Looked at carcass characteristics, especially marbling score of T-2 and T-3 were higher (4.1 and 4.5) than those (3.5 to 3.8) of other treatments and beef yield also were higher. These results suggested that 6 month of grazing starting age would be recommended to increase growth performance, beef quality and quantity.