ROWTH rate and efficiency of feed utilization are two of the most economically important characters in the production of meat animals. In these days of world shortage of both plant and animal protein, and with an energy crisis looming on the horizon, the necessity both to reduce maintenance costs by speeding up growth rate and to improve the efficiency of growth by improving the efficiency of c...

Efficiency of beef production is one of those terms that probably means something different to each person discussing the topic. Certainly, efficiency means something different to the packer than to the feeder or cow/calf producer. Beef production practices, and especially breeding, have been largely influenced by feed conversion (one measure of efficiency) in the feedlot and in dressing percen...

Selection for the wide range of traits for which most beef breed associations calculate expected progeny differences focus on increasing the outputs of the production system, thereby increasing the genetic potential of cattle for reproductive rates, weights, growth rates, and end-product yield. Feed costs, however, represent a large proportion of the variable cost of beef production and genetic...

Feed efficiency has a major influence on the unit cost of beef cattle production. Gibb and McAllister (1999) have reported that a 5% improvement in feed efficiency has an economic impact four times greater than a 5% improvement in average daily gain. In addition, the cost of feed is second only to fixed costs in importance to the profitability of commercial beef operations (Basarab, 1999). The ...

Improving feed efficiency in dairy cattle is a costly and complex challenge, due to the difficulty in measuring individual animal feed intakes and the need to consider energy demands for growth, lactation, maintenance, health, and fertility. Research projects are underway in several countries to provide genomic breeding values for dry matter intake or residual feed intake of dairy bulls based o...

A new feed additive, salinomycin, was fed to 70 finishing steers (initial weight of 772lb) and 70 finishing heifers (initial weight of 4951b) for 139 and 145 days, respectively. Salinomycin was fed at 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 g per ton of a ground corn based diet. Averaged across salinomycin levels, gain was increased 2.6 percent and efficiency of feed use was improved by 7.8 percent. Feed intake w...

Theexperiment was conducted to investigate the growth performance and feed conversion efficiency of crossbred heifer at different age level in Government Dairy Farm in Bogra, Bangladesh. Twelve female crossbred heifers were equally distributed (n=3) into four groups [Group A: (7±2 months), B: (12±2 months), C: (15±2 months) and D: (20±2 months)] according to age and fed concentrate mix, rice st...