Fattening of beef cattle in organic farming system to improve meat quality | Gaļas liellopu nobarošana bioloģiskās lauksaimniecības sistēmā gaļas kvalitātes uzlabošanai
2020
Aplocina, E., Latvia Univ. of Life Sciences and Technologies, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Agriculture | Kreismane, D., Latvia Univ. of Life Sciences and Technologies, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Agriculture | Runce, A., Farm “Atēnas”, Zaube Parish, Amata Municipality (Latvia)
The beef is rarely valued for its internal fat and marbling in Latvia, but the public interest about meat quality has increased. The aim of the research is to find the most optimal fattening method to obtain the required fat class and marbling for meat in the organic farming system. This article summarizes the preliminary study results on the fattening of Limousine beef cattle at one of the research farms. The bulls in the control group received pasture grass, but the animals of the study group were fed with oat straw and a mixture of concentrates from 80% barley and 20% peas during the final fattening. Increased energy content is required to ensure an adequate layer of fat on the carcass of beef cattle, so the study group received an unlimited amount of concentrated feed, consuming an average of 8.5 kg of concentrates and only 3.0 kg of oat straw per day per animal. Feeding only grass with 66% digestibility resulted in an increase in live weight of only 500–600 g dayE−1, and for the study group the digestibility of feed fed was 75%, which provided an increase in live weight of 1001 g dayE−1. The different feeding and housing system did not result in fat deposition; the carcasses of both groups of animals had a very low layer of fat on the surface of the carcass. When feeding the maximum rations of concentrates, the muscle area is significantly (p is less than 0.05) larger, but no marbling is found in the steak.
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