The effect of different forage to concentrate ratio on fattening performance, slaughter value and meat quality of Hungarian Simmental fattening bulls

Abstract

The objective of this trial was to investigate the effect of diets differing in the forage to concentrate ratio with or without linseed supplementation on animal performance and meat quality in terms of fatty acid composition using Hungarian Simmental young bulls. In total, Hungarian Simmental bulls were reared to 300 kg initial live weight and 275 d of age. Animals were distributed into three feeding groups with different maize silage to concentrate ratios (670:330 = A; 750:250 = B; 800:200 = C) based on DM. The low concentrate groups (B and C) received linseed supplemented concentrate during the fattening period. Feeding high concentrate (A) caused the significantly highest daily gain. The higher price of linseed supplemented concentrate can be reduced by the diet with higher forage to concentrate ratio. The slaughter weights, dressing (%), lean (%) and fat (%) did not show any significant differences between feeding groups. Carcass conformation of all groups was assessed mainly as U. Bone proportion of the carcasses was affected by the diet (A: 18.65%; B: 18.41%; C: 17.91%). The tendon proportions were lower in groups B and C but not significantly. Among the three investigated muscles, Psoas major muscle (PM) contained the highest fat concentration in all three feeding groups. In linseed supplemented groups (B and C) the palmitic acid and palmitoleoyl acid proportion was decreased (P<0.05) in all muscles and the linolenic, eicosapentaenoic and the sum of n-3 fatty acid (P<0.05) was increased compared to the A group. The beef from groups B and C bulls showed a lower n-6 to n-3 fatty acids ratio (P<0.05). High forage diet with linseed supplementation did not affect the fattening, slaughter and dressing data, but can be produced meat with lower fattening cost and can be reached an improvement in fatty acid composition.