Calf transport abroad, animal welfare , meat consumption and a sustainable and holistic view of animal production systems bring the (male) calves of our dairy farms into the media and social focus .
The question arises as to what can be done with high-dairy calves. Promoting domestic calf fattening and stocking dairy cows with meat breed animals are two promising approaches that are already being increasingly implemented in Austria.
A research project at the HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein took a holistic look at milk production AND fattening . In a bull fattening trial, Simmental and Holstein cattle were fattened at 2 feeding levels. Evaluations were carried out
- Fattening performance (feed intake, gains, feed conversion, ...)
- Slaughtering performance (classification, cuts, fat storage, etc.) and
- Meat quality (tenderness, juiciness, marbling, ...)
In addition, the economic efficiency examined. Just listen or watch:
In conversation with Dr. Andreas Steinwidder tells Dr. Margit Velik on the results of the research project “Masteeffzienz – Animal performance and meat quality of dairy cattle in bull fattening”.
