ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA

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Effects of the Whole Cottonseed in Diet on Production Performance, Carcass Performance, Quality of Beef in Fattening Crossbred Steers

LI Kun1,3, ZHAO Hong-bo2,3, SONG En-liang2,3, CHENG Hai-jian2,3, WANG Xing-ling2,3,
LIU Gui-fen2,3, TAN Xiu-wen2,3, LIU Xiao-mu2,3, SUN Guo-qiang1*, WAN Fa-chun2,3*   

  1. (1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109,
    China; 2. Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Academy of Agricultural
    Sciences, Jinan 250100, China; 3. Shandong Key Laboratory of Animal Disease Control and
    Breeding, Jinan 250100, China
    )
  • Received:2011-11-09 Online:2012-10-25 Published:2012-10-25

Abstract: The study was conducted to investigate the effects of different levels of the whole cottonseed taking the place of the cottonseed cake in the diets on meat performance in fattening Limmonsin crossbred steers. Forty healthy steers with similar weight (454.37±42.42)kg were randomly allocated to four treatments with ten replicates each and one steer in each replicate, precise feeding concentrates with different levels of the whole cottonseed during the 90 days finishing periods. The results showed that the different levels of the whole cottonseed in diet had no signification influence on feed intake, the ratio of bone and meat, the percentage of the fine quality beef, pH, gossypol residue in muscle, kidney and lung, serum biochemical indexes(P>0.05). With the levels of the whole cottonseed in concentrates changed, the average daily again(ADG), carcass weight, dressing percentage, net meat percentage, LM area, backfat thickness, feed conversion efficiency, shear stress, gossypol residue in liver and heart, meat color had changed significantly(P<0.05). When the content of the whole cottonseed reached 22.0%, the carcass weight, dressing percentage, net meat percentage, ratio of meat and bone, LM area, high percentage of the beef, the intermuscular fat was the lowest. In conclusion, the whole cottonseed replacing cottonseed cakes and oil in fattening crossbred steers’ diets had no effect on rapidly fattening, but it depressed carcass quality.

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