The nutrient quality of forage, particularly perennial warm-season grasses, is often lacking in trace mineral content to supply the requirements of most all classes of grazing cattle. Since forage is the most significant contributor to the trace mineral nutrition of grazing beef cattle, it is important to consider these deficits and how they may impact the performance of the cattle consuming th...

Thirty Hereford steers were finished either on pasture (n=10) or concentrate (n=20) to determine dietary and antioxidant treatment effects on carcass characteristics, fatty acid composition, and quality of Uruguayan beef. Half of the steers finished on concentrate were supplemented with 1000 I.U. vitamin E head(-1) day(-1) for 100 days. Postmortem vitamin C was added to ground beef (0.05% v/w) ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of supplements containing different energy sources in relation to mineral supplementation of steers grazing guineagrass (Panicum maximum cv Tanzânia) pasture, during the dry season. The experimental design was a randomized block with three treatments and four replications. The treatments consisted of a mineral supplementation and two other su...

Respiratory disease in cattle is often associated with the youngest animals such as calves, heifers or steers (Hartel et al. 2004; Ames, 1997). Most cases appear before the age of two-years old (if not before the end of the first month of life-Crowe, 2001), and respiratory disease is a major cause of losses, particularly in beef cattle production (Prado et al. 2005; Kapil & Basaraba, 1997; John...

Growth and carcass traits are economically important quality characteristics of beef cattle and are complex quantitative traits that are controlled by multiple genes. In this study, 2 candidate genes, H-FABP (encoding the heart fatty acid-binding protein) and PSMC1 (encoding the proteasome 26S subunit of ATPase 1) were investigated in Qinchuan beef cattle of China. PCR-SSCP and DNA sequencing m...

Two feedlot trials were conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding frequency (once daily in the morning, once daily in the afternoon or twice daily) and feeding level (ad libitum, 95% of ad libitum, or 90% of ad libitum) on the feedlot performance and carcass composition of beef steers. Data were collected using 196 yearling beef steers. In both trials cattle fed once daily in the morning ten...

A computerised database system to record the details of all individual cattle, cattle holdings, cattle movements and cattle tests has been in use in Northern Ireland since 1988. This system was originally used purely to administer official tuberculosis and brucellosis eradication schemes, but subsequent developments have employed the traceability function to extend the use of the system to qual...

The cattle market has set year-over-year record high prices since 2009. The increasing value of cattle has substantially increased the financial risk of feeding cattle, and has commensurately increased the economic losses from disease. As cattle feeding profitability continues to be challenged by the low margin between selling prices and operating costs, all facets of cattle feeding are being e...

The objectives of the trial were to investigate the effects of supplementing vitamin E (VE) on nutrient digestion, nitrogen (N) retention and plasma parameters of beef cattle in feedlot. Four growing Simmental bulls, fed with a total mixed ration composed of corn silage and concentrate mixture as basal ration, were used as the experimental animals. Four levels of VE product, i.e. 0, 150, 300, 6...

The communal grazing system is generally understood to have a low input, low output type of management. However, the actual inputs and outputs of the farmers are not well known and the farmers are often unaware of their problems. Although the causes of low calving percentage are well understood in commercial beef farming enterprises in South Africa, the same is not true for communal farming sys...