When cattle are kept on pasture, stocking density is an important criterion for the achievable individual animal performance and area productivity. When keeping short grass pastures, there is a connection between animal numbers and growth height. In the present work, the influence of pasture growth height in short-grass grazing on fattening and slaughter performance, meat quality, area productivity and economic parameters in ox fattening without concentrate supplementation in the mountainous area of Austria was examined. The experiment was carried out in two rounds with a total of 24 Simmental oxen, divided into 3 test groups each year, with a live weight of 225 kg to 700 kg. A pasture growth height of 5.0 cm was aimed for in the short group, 6.5 cm in the medium group and 8.0 cm in the long group. The growth height of each permanent grassland area was recorded weekly with the Rising Plate Pasture Meter and the pasture area size was increased accordingly as the vegetation progressed. After the first grazing period, the groups of oxen were kept in manure boxes in winter and fed with grass silage and then returned to the corresponding short-grass pastures. With the exception of four animals in the short group, which had to be stabled again in the fall until they reached their final fattening weight, all oxen were slaughtered in the second grazing period. The nutrient content of the pasture feed samples from the three pasture growth groups differed only slightly; the average crude protein content was 20% and the average energy concentration was 10.7 MJ ME. However, as the growth height increased, feed losses increased, the homogeneity of plant use decreased and pasture care measures became increasingly necessary. The average slaughter age of the animals was 26.4 (short), 24.8 (medium) and 24.2 (long) months. Group differences that were close to the limit of significance were found in the duration of the experiment and the daily weight gain (P values 0.06 and 0.07, respectively). The daily weight gain of the short group (864 g) tended to be lower than that of the medium (950 g) and long (935 g) groups. The area requirement per animal was significantly higher in the long group than in the short and medium groups. In terms of area performance (live weight gain/ha), the animals in the long group fell significantly short of the other two groups (short 612 kg/ha and medium 606 kg/ha) at 492 kg/ha. Those experimental groups that achieved the highest daily gains did not achieve the highest area performance. The carcass and meat quality did not differ between the test groups and was on average at a good level. With pasture-based beef fattening, however, a slightly darker meat color and a stronger yellow tone in the fat must be expected; the proportion of nutritionally desirable fatty acids is, in contrast, higher. From a business perspective, the medium group performed most favorably.
Detailed results:
• Lecture – organic conference
Scientific publications on the test results:
- Steinwidder, A., Starz, W., Rohrer, H., Pfister, R., Terler, G., Velik, M., Häusler, J., Kitzer, R., Schauer, A., Podstatzky, L., 2019: Pasture ox fattening without concentrated feed. 1. Communication: Influence of the growth height in short grass pastures on fattening performance and area productivity. Breeding Science 91, 329-346.
- Steinwidder, A., Starz, W., Rohrer, H., Pfister, R., Terler, G., Velik, M., Häusler, J., Kitzer, R., Schauer, A., Podstatzky, L., 2019: Pasture ox fattening without concentrated feed. 2nd message: Influence of the growth height in short grass pastures on slaughter performance, meat quality and economic efficiency. Breeding Science 91, 347-359.
Specialist article on the test results:
- Steinwidder, A., 2019: Affordable fattening on pasture. Farmer, 6, 28-29.
- Steinwidder, A., 2019: Short grass - heavy oxen. Farmer 23, 23-25