Growth, development and meat productivity of bull-calves of both Simmental breed and its crossbred progeny with Hereford and Charolais cattle
This article deals with research into beef quality improvement problem and increasing meat productivity of cattle by crossing dairy cows and combined breeds with sires of high productive meat breeds. Data on growth and development of cross-breed bull-calves resulted from crossing Simmental cows with bulls of both Hereford and Charolais breeds are provided in the paper. Evaluation of exterior, meat productivity and meat quality of cross-breed bull-calves, grown under the same conditions, has been performed. It has been found that Charolais crosses are characterized by faster growth rate compared to the maternal breed and Hereford crosses, and by the end of the experiment they had gained more live weight; Charolais crosses had more average gain, pair carcass mass and half carcass flesh part absolute mass. Analysis of chemical composition of an average meat sample shows that crossbred progeny was characterized by a longer period of intensive growth and less fat reservation.