Feeding strategies for improved beef productivity and reduced GHG emission in Tanzania: effect of type of finish-feeding on carcass yield and meat quality of Zebu steers
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Date
2015
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer International Publishing Switzerland
Abstract
The study was conducted to elucidate the effects of grazing on natural
pastures alone versus total stall feeding on growth performance, carcass character-
istics, and meat quality of Tanzania Zebu steers. In this experiment, 27 steers were
distributed into 2 dietary groups; stall feeding (SF) and natural pasture feeding
(NP). Animals in SF were totally confined in the feedlot with free access to wheat
straw as a basal diet and supplemented with concentrate mixture, while those in NP
were freely grazed on natural pasture. Animals in SF displayed 500 g higher
average daily gain (ADG) and four units higher dressing percentage than those in
NP. The marbling scores, hind leg length (HL), and hind leg circumference (Circ.)
was also statistically higher among animals in SF than among those in NP
(P 0.05). Moreover, postmortem temperature was observed to decline more rapidly among animals in NP than in SF. However, postmortem carcass pH, meat
tenderness, meat color, meat chemical composition (moisture content, dry matter
(DM), ash, Ether Extract (EE), and Crude Protein (CP)) were independent of
concentrate supplementation (P > 0.05). The high performance of the SF group in
terms of ADG, dressing percentage, and intramuscular fat deposition was associ-
ated with utilization of high energy rich concentrate and improved utilization of
wheat straw following concentrate supplementation. It was concluded that, in
addition to the manipulation of the animals’ body through nutrition, other factors
such as reducing pre-slaughter stress and appropriate ageing of meat should be
manipulated to improve the meat quality of indigenous Zebu cattle.
Description
Book chapter
Keywords
Concentrate, Pasture, Growth performance, Carcass, Meat quality