Performance and meat quality of Tanzania shorthorn zebu cattle under feedlot based on local feed resources in Kongwa district, Tanzania
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Date
2021
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
An on-station feeding experiment was conducted to develop cheap and good quality
fattening diets based on locally available feed ingredients: to assess the growth
performance, feed utilization efficiency, carcass characteristics, meat quality, and the
profitability of cattle finish feeding using diets based on locally available feed resources.
A total of 50 Tanzania Shorthorn Zebu bulls belonging to the Gogo stain were used. The
bulls had 3 - 4 years of age and average initial weight of 130 kg. The bulls were allotted to
five dietary treatments (T 1 – T 5 ) in a completely randomized design. T 1 to T 4 comprised of
concentrate diets based on ingredients from local feed resources whereas T 5 was a control
treatment with normal grazing without supplementation. The ingredients of fattening diets
were maize bran (MB), rice polishing (RP), molasses (MO), and sunflower seed cake
(SSC). The composition of the diets were as follows; T 1 (78% MB, 20% SSC, 1.5%
Mineral premix, 0.5% Salt), T 2 (75% MB, 3% RP, 20% SSC, 1.5% Mineral premix, 0.5%
Salt), T 3 (53% MB, 20% SSC, 25% MO, 1.5% Mineral premix, 0.5% Salt), T 4 (50% MB,
3% RP, 20% SSC, 25% MO, 1.5% Mineral premix, 0.5% Salt). The results shows that, the
bulls subjected to concentrate diets had significantly higher total weight gain (P < 0.0001)
than the bulls on the control group. Bulls on T 3 had the highest average daily weight gain
(1.28 kg/d), followed by those on T 1 (1.07 kg/d). The bulls subjected to concentrate diets
had higher (P < 0.05) hot carcass weight, empty body weight, dressing percentage and
proportion of internal organs than the bulls on control group. Cooking loss (CL) and meat
toughness as measured by Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF) were higher (P < 0.05) in
the bulls on the control group than in bulls on concentrate diets. Bulls on the control group
had more than 10% unit higher cooking loss than the bulls on concentrate diets. Among
the bulls on concentrate diets, T 1 (67.11 Ncm -2 ) and T 3 (66.64 Ncm -2 )had slightly lower
meat toughness than T 2 and T 4 . The cooking loss (CL) values for meat aged for 1 day was 8% unit higher (P = 0.0001) than the average CL values (26.81 %) of meat aged for 5 and
10 days. On the other hand, the WBSF values (76.13 Ncm -2 ) for the meat aged for 1 day
was more than 40 Ncm -2 higher than that of the meat aged for 5 and 10 days. Increasing
postmortem storage time up to 10 days decreased shear force of meat from bulls on
concentrate and the control group from 70.6 Ncm -2 to 23.57 Ncm -2 and 98.1 Ncm -2 to
23.57 Ncm -2 , respectively. The relative lightness (L*) was about 8 units lower (P =
0.0014) in LD muscle from bulls on control group than in bulls on concentrate diets. Bulls
on concentrate diets had on average lower CP value and more than twice as higher values
in %EE than the bulls on control group. The bulls fed T 4 had the highest (P = 0.05) cost
per unit weight gain (3,243.7 TZS) and lowest Gross Margin (162,531 TZS) whereas those
on T 1 had the lowest cost per unit weight gain (2,374.4 TZS) and T 3 had the highest Gross
Margin (235,471 TZS). Treatment diet T 1 was found to be the best than the other diets. It
is concluded that, knowledge on the nutritive value of locally available feed resources
allows for formulation of a balanced diet for fattening indigenous beef cattle to produce
good quality and tender beef at affordable prices.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Meat quality, Shorthorn zebu, Feed resources, Tanzania, Kongwa district