Performance and carcass composition of Baggara cattle raised to two slaughter weights I. Feedlot performance and slaughter characteristics of Baggara cattle.

Abstract

Forty-eight Sudan Baggara bulls were used. They were divided into two groups 
according to their ages, young (1-2 years) 143.5±7.5kg and mature (3-4 years) 
249.0±9.6kg. The bulls were kept for a period of 25 weeks, during which they were fed ad 
libitum on a concentrated diet (20% CP and 11.1 MJ/kg DM ME). Representative animals 
from each group slaughtered at weeks 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 of the feeding period. 
Mature bulls consumed more feed and had better daily weight gain than young ones. But 
young bulls showed better feed conversion ratio than mature bulls. 
No significant treatment effect (P>0.05) on trunk length, heart girth, height at 
withers and hip, neck and hump length was observed. However there were significant effect 
on chest depth (P<0.05), pelvic width (P<0.01), shank width and barrel circumference 
(P<0.001). Mature bulls showed higher dressing percentages (54.2, 59.3) than young (53.9, 
58.7) bulls on full and empty body basis, respectively. Body weight had a significant effect 
(P<0.001) on the weights of all offal parts except spleen and rumen fill weight. 
At an equally adjusted slaughter weight, young bulls had heavier omentum, 
mesenteric, head and hide weights, while mature bulls had higher liver, spleen and rumen 
fill weights.