Influence of different factors on the growth rate of young animals and the quality of beef

Abstract

The purpose of the work was to study and identify the main factors aff ecting the quantity and quality of beef produced and sold in the Southern Federal district. A comparative assessment of the growth, development, formation of meat productivity and quality of beef of young animals of beef, dual and dairy breeds with stall-pasture technology and intensive rearing in the industrial complex. Experimental studies have been carried out in farms in the Rostov region. The object of research was cows with calves of Kalmyk, Hereford, Aberdeen-Angus, Russian komolaya, Kazakh White-headed breeds, as well as young animals of the same breeds, in addition, Black-and-White and Swiss breeds. Removable live weight in Hereford steers at 18 months of age was 658,0 kg, and Aberdeen-Angus – 655,2 kg. Domestic steers of Kalmyk were 41–44 kg lower in live weight than their herdmates of two imported breeds. However, with intensive rearing at 18 months of age, steers of Kalmyk breed had a removable live weight of more than 613,7 kg and a carcass weight of 326 kg. The yield of hot carcass was 55,4 %, and the slaughter yield was 58,89 %, which was only 1–2 % lower than the world’s leading beef breeds. It has been found when analyzing the results of boning the half-carcasses of experimental steers that the biggest weight of half-carcasses and the content of muscle and fat tissue in them in absolute terms were in Hereford steers. Steers of Kalmyk breed took the third place in terms of weight of large-sized semi–fi nished products and signifi cantly lost to Aberdeen-Angus herdmates by 7,3 kg or 6,5 %, and Hereford steers by 9,2 kg or 8,3 %. The results obtained prove the expediency of using stallpasture technology in the dry-steppe zone of the Southern Federal district when rearing young animals for beef up to 350–400 kg live weight at 15 months of age and its subsequent intensive rearing under industrial technology, in order to obtain the live weight of more than 570 kg and produce cost-eff ective beef.