Calf transports abroad, animal welfare, meat consumption and a sustainable and holistic view of animal production systems are bringing the (male) calves of our dairy farms into the media and social focus.
The question arises as to what can be done with calves that are heavily dairy-bred. Promoting domestic calf fattening and breeding dairy cows with beef bulls are two promising approaches that are already being implemented more extensively in Austria.
A research project at the HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein took a holistic view of milk production AND fattening. In a bull fattening trial, Simmental and Holstein cattle were fattened at two feeding levels. Evaluations were carried out regarding...
- Fattening performance (feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion, ...)
- Slaughter performance (classification, cuts, fat marbling, …) and
- Meat quality (tenderness, juiciness, marbling, …)
The economic viability examined. Just listen or watch:
In conversation with Dr. Andreas Steinwidder Dr. Margit Velik talks about the results of the research project “Fattening efficiency – Animal performance and meat quality of dairy-focused cattle in bull fattening”.
