The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) complex on economically important production traits with the use of health records in combination with lung lesion scores obtained at slaughter. Records from 5,976 animals were used in this study from cattle that were managed in Midwestern feedlots. Average daily gain for 3 different feeding periods (...

The impact of zilpaterol hydrochloride (ZH) on carcass yield, composition, and tenderness was evaluated using 384 beef steers in a randomized complete block design. Main effects were the addition of 0 or 8.3 mg/kg of ZH for the final 20 d of feeding and each inclusion level was paired with withdrawal periods of 3, 10, 17, or 24 d. The 2 animals with BW closest to the pen average were selected f...

Steers (n = 335) of known genetic backgrounds from four fundamentally different growth types were subjected to two production systems to study the main effects and possible interactive effects on carcass composition. Growth types were animals with genetic potential for large mature weight (LL), intermediate mature weight-late maturing (IL), intermediate mature weight-early maturing (IE), and sm...

The present experiment, ‘Regional Combinations’, examined growth, and carcassandmeat-quality traits in the progeny of sires genetically diverse for fatness and meat yield when grown at different rates from weaning to feedlot entry. The present paper is the first of several papers describing results from the New South Wales site, one of four in the project. It reports the effects on growth and b...

A two-year experiment evaluated the effects of sorting long yearling steers by initial feedlot BW and supplementing 200 mg/steer of Optaflexx daily the last 28 days of the feeding period on ADG, F/G, carcass characteristics and profitability. Feedlot ADG, F/G, and profitability were not effected by sorting. However, sorted cattle exhibited increased fat thickness, increased rib-eye area, and in...

A finishing trial was conducted during the late spring and summer of 2 consecutive years to evaluate long-term feeding of corn gluten feed and dried distillers' grains with solubles in finishing rations in the southeastern United States on feedlot performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality attributes. Each year, 36 steers (yr 1 BW = 396 ± 18 kg; yr 2 BW = 436 ± 23 kg) were assigned ...

Calves weaned on cow­calf operations throughout Arkansas even­ tually move on to stocker, feedlot and packer operations. Wide variations in carcass uniformity and consistency exist among these calves. Potential carcass problems can include inappro­ priate carcass size and weight, i nadequate tenderness, insufficient intramuscular fat (marbling) and excess external fat cover. Many of these quali...