RT Journal Article
T1 High-energy forage feeding diets and body condition on the finishing of cull dairy cows
A1 Moreno, Teresa
A1 Botana López, Ana María
A1 Bispo, Esperanza
A1 González, L.
A1 García, C.
A1 Mesas Mesas, Juan Manuel
K1 Animal performance
K1 Carcass characteristics
K1 Cull dairy cows
K1 Finishing feeding
AB Combinations of two high-energy forage finishing diets and two initial body condition scores (BCSs) in a 2 × 2 factorial experimental design were evaluated on cull Holstein–Friesian (HF) cows to improve animal performance and carcass characteristics, aimed at achieving proper fatness and conformation scores (a minimum of ‘4’ and ‘O’, respectively) required for the marketing of high-value loin steaks. The two finishing diets were (i) conventional maize silage complemented with concentrate diet and (ii) wet maize ear silage (pastone) complemented with dry-herbage diet. The two initial body condition levels were (i) low BCS < 5 (LBCS) and (ii) high BCS > 5 (HBCS). The HBCS animals had the greatest potential to respond to the finishing diets. They needed a smaller total feed intake (TFI) and a shorter finishing period (FP) to meet the marketing requirements. The average feed budgets necessary to finish cull dairy cows and to achieve the minimum scores ‘4’ and ‘O’ of carcass classification were 2.31 and 3.61 t of dry matter (DM)/cow for HBCS and LBCS animals, respectively, while the FP lasted an average of 143 and 224 days for HBCS and LBCS animals, respectively. With regard to the two feeding diets, we found no differences for TFI, carcass characteristics and loin muscle features, such as weight, diameter and intramuscular fat
PB Elsevier
SN 1751-7311
YR 2012
FD 2012
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/24275
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/24275
LA eng
NO Animal, Volume 6, Issue 10, 2012, Pages 1634-1641
NO Research partially funded by the project 07MRU001CT of theConsellería de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación from Xuntade Galicia, Spain
DS Minerva
RD 28 abr 2026