Growth performance and carcass composition of (BBB x Lai Braham) and (Red Angus x Lai Brahman) crossbred cattle in Quang Ngai province
The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth performance and carcass composition of (BBB x Lai Brahman) and (Red Angus x Lai Brahman) crossbred cattle reared in Quang Ngai province. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with two factors, the first factor is a crossbred cattle group of two groups (BBB x Lai Brahman) and (Red Angus x Lai Brahman), the second factor is the level of protein in concentrates with two levels including 15.0% and 18% in the growing period, 13% and 16% in the finishing period. A total of 4 treatments, each treatment consisted of 4 individual cattle. Feed for cattle consists of a mixture of concentrates fed at 1.2% body weight (growing period) and 1.5% body weight (finishing period), forage including grass elephants (0.5% body weight) and rice straw were fed ad libitum. The growing period is 10 months (from 6 to 15 months of age) and the finishing period is 3 months (from 16 to 18 months of age). The results showed that, the feed intake of the (BBB x Lai Brahman) and (Red Angus x Lai Brahman) cattle reached 2.54 - 2.56% of body weight at the growth period and 2,29 - 2.30% of body weight at the finishing period. The average weight gain of cattle in the growing period was 0.69 - 0.79 kg/head/day, the finishing period was 1.02 - 1.21 kg/head/day. The average weight gain of (BBB x Lai Brahman) tended to be higher than that of (Red Angus x Lai Brahman) cattle. Cattle fed the high protein level led to live weight gain higher than cattle fed the low protein level. The percentage of carcass and meat of the (BBB x Lai Brahman) reached 64.7 and 48.8%, respectively, higher than that of the (Red Angus x Lai Brahman) cattle with 61.3 and 42.5%, respectively. The protein levels did not affect the percentage of carcass and the meat (P>0.05), but only affect the carcass weight and the meat weight (P<0.05).
