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Title: EFFICIENCY OF FEED UTILIZATION OF DIVERSE BIOLOGICAL TYPES OF CATTLE.

Author
item Jenkins, Thomas
item Ferrell, Calvin

Submitted to: World Congress of Genetics Applied in Livestock Production
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/13/2002
Publication Date: 8/23/2002
Citation: JENKINS,T.G., FERRELL,C.L., EFFICIENCY OF FEED UTILIZATION OF DIVERSE BIOLOGICAL TYPES OF CATTLE. 7th WORLD CONGRESS OF GENETICS APPLIED IN LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION, MONTPELLIER, FRANCE. 2002. BOOK OF ABSTRACTS, P. 173.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Diverse breed resources provide cow/calf producers an opportunity to utilize breed combinations to enhance productivity for specific markets within defined production environments. Previous research documents the role of Bos indicus breeds of cattle for use in the cowherd in hot-humid production environments (Olson et al., 1991; Brown et al., 2001). Green et al. (1991) reported more weight of calf weaned from F1 Bos indicus cows per unit of feed consumed by the cows from calving until weaning. Phillips et al. (2001) reported calves whose dams were 50% Bos indicus exhibited greater weight gains on native prairie pastures during the stocking period than straightbred calves. These positive contributions to beef production from Bos indicus breeds are offset by older ages at puberty (Gregory et al., 1979) and reduced meat tenderness with increasing percentage of Bos indicus breeding (Crouse et al., 1989). Reproductive (Cundiff et. al., 2001) and meat palatability potentials (Wheeler et al., 2001) of tropically adapted Bos taurus breeds of cattle may provide alternative breed resources for southern beef producers. Ferrell and Jenkins (1998) reported significant variation in energy utilization during the postweaning period for steers representing tropically and non-tropically adapted breeds of cattle. These results document the need to characterize production characteristics of mature cows representing these diverse breeds of cattle. The objective is to compare production characteristics of tropically adapted Bos taurus (TBT), Bos indicus (TBI) and non-adapted Bos taurus (NBT) cows from calving through weaning to identify an alternative to Bos indicus for use as a maternal breedcross in tropical or subtropical production environments.