Effect of Starch Source in Concentrate Diets and of Days on Feed on Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics, Meat Quality, and Economic Return of Feedlot Steers

Abstract

The effects of PS were determined as a concentrate added to feed and of the days it was short-term and long-term fed to fattening dairy steers on their growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat quality, and economic return. The experimental units comprised 36 feedlot dairy steers arranged as a 2 ⋅ 3 factorial in a completely randomized design. The first term (diet factors) consisted of ground corn (GC), ground cassava (CA), or pineapple stem starch (PS) at 37% dry matter (DM) in the concentrate. The second term (feeding factors) consisted of feeding the concentrate from 1 to 206 days (short-term feeding) or from 1 to 344 days (long-term feeding). At the end of the feeding term periods, the animals were slaughtered and the growth performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality were evaluated. The average daily gain (ADG), feed:gain ratio, dry matter intake (DMI), hot carcass and cool carcass percentages, and backfat thickness were greater for steers on short-term than on long-term feeding. Feeding the different starch sources had no negative influence on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality. However, the ADG of steers fed PS tended (P = 0.07) to be higher than for those fed GC or CA. In addition, the concentration of the fatty acid C14:1 in the longissimus dorsi muscle was the highest in steers fed CA. Different starch sources had similar values for saturated fatty acid (SFA) and monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA.) Long-term feeding increased MUFA. Pineapple stem starch could be a useful feed ingredient for feedlot steers as an alternative starch source for energy.

Growth Performance, Blood Metabolites, Carcass Characteristics and Meat Quality in Finishing Wagyu Crossbred Beef Cattle Receiving Betaine–Biotin–Chromium (BBC) Supplementation

“…In this study, steers under all dietary treatments had an energy intake above their requirements for maintenance and gain (average = 1.50), with the fat content in the muscle averaging 33.14%. This is in line with the findings of Krongpradit et al [ 47 ], who discovered that dairy steers received more excess energy intake (average 1.4) and had more fat in the muscle (average 28.47%). Similarly, Pimpa et al [ 46 ] found that including 5% fat in the diet increased energy intake above the requirements, resulting in a 41.98% increase in muscle fat percentage.…”

“…Similarly, high b* values resulted in high back fat thickness (1.66–2.33 cm) in the current study, compared with the b* and back fat thickness in Wagyu crossbred steers reported by Suksombat et al [ 6 ] and Mirattanaphra and Suksombat [ 7 ]. The b* values and back fat thickness were higher than in previous studies in dairy steers [ 47 ] and Charolais crossbred steers [ 46 ]. This is probably due to a higher excess energy intake that was used for fat synthesis.…”

“…This finding agreed with the findings of Suksombat et al [ 6 ] in Wagyu crossbred steers and of Pimpa et al [ 46 ] in Charolais crossbred steers. However, the LEA in crossbred beef breed in this study was higher than that of dairy crossbred steers (84.49 cm 2 ) at a similar slaughter weight reported by Krongpradit et al [ 47 ].…”

“…This finding agreed with the findings of Suksombat et al [6] in Wagyu crossbred steers and of Pimpa et al [46] in Charolais crossbred steers. However, the LEA in crossbred beef breed in this study was higher than that of dairy crossbred steers (84.49 cm 2 ) at a similar slaughter weight reported by Krongpradit et al [47]. BBC = betaine-biotin-chromium combination, WC = warm carcass, CC = chilled carcass, WBS = Warner-bratzler shear force, 0 BBC = control with no BBC supplementation, 3 BBC = BBC supplementation at 3 g/kg DM, and 6 BBC = BBC supplementation at 6 g/kg DM, L = linear effect, Q = quadratic effect, SEM = standard error of the mean.…”