What are the fattening methods for calves, growing cattle and adult cattle?
Fattening refers to the farming process of making livestock and poultry (generally meat-type livestock and poultry) obese or plump. After all, only plump cattle can fetch a good price. Below is a compilation of fattening methods for calves, growing cattle and adult cattle, cattle farmers should read it carefully!
Calf fattening:
The purpose is to produce veal, which is pale red in color, delicious and juicy, with the carcass surface evenly covered with a layer of white fat, known as “white meat”. Its protein is 27.2%-63.8% higher than ordinary beef, its fat is 19-24 times lower, and it contains all the various amino acids needed by the human body. It is an ideal high-grade beef, and Western countries with high consumption levels all have this consumption habit. The calf fattening method is to select calves with a birth weight of no less than 35 kg, healthy and disease-free, and requiring fast early growth. The specific practice is: newborn calves must be fed colostrum for the first 3 days, suckle from the cow before 4 weeks of age, be taught to eat forage from 5 weeks of age, and be tethered to restrict movement; at 10 weeks of age, the daily milk feeding amount is 8% of body weight, with high-quality hay or green grass provided for free feeding, and the amount of concentrate supplement (corn 42%, wheat bran 25%, soybean cake 15%, dried sugar beet pulp 15%, calcium phosphate 0.3%, salt 0.2%, fish meal 2.5%) gradually increased. The fattening end age is 6-8 months (at most 12 months), body weight 300-350 kg, and the dressing percentage can reach 60%.
Growing cattle fattening:
Growing cattle refers to cattle from 6 months of age to 2 years of age. At this time they are in a period of vigorous growth, and fattening gains weight quickly with a high feed conversion rate. One type is intensive fattening of young cattle, that is, immediately transferring calves to fattening after weaning, using highly nutritious feeding to keep their daily weight gain above 1.2 kg, and finishing fattening at one year of age, when the live weight can reach 400 kg. This method must use large meat-type cattle or crossbred offspring of excellent yellow cattle breeds of our country. In addition to feeding green forage, the concentrate formula is: corn 40%, wheat bran 20%, cottonseed cake 38%, bone meal 1.5%, salt 0.5%. Another type is feeder cattle from one year to one and a half years old, which after about half a year of intensive fattening reach one and a half to two years of age and 450 kg body weight for marketing. During intensive fattening, the amount of mixed concentrate can account for 1.5% of body weight; at this time the daily concentrate feeding is 3-3.5 kg, corn silage 15 kg, and high-quality green hay 3-4.5 kg. The mixed concentrate formulas are: 1) corn 40%, soybean cake 26%, wheat bran 28%, urea 2%, salt 1%, compound additive 3%; 2) corn 38%, sunflower cake 26%, wheat bran 28%, calcium carbonate 3%, bone meal 3%, salt 2%. Crossbred cattle should be used, preferably uncastrated bulls or steers. The advantage of this method is that the cattle's bones and digestive organs have already fully developed, and after entering intensive fattening the feed utilization rate is high, the fattening cycle is short, and the growth speed is fast, making it suitable for beef cattle fattening in the vast farming areas of our country.
Adult cattle fattening:
Whether beef cattle, draft cattle or culled cows, all can be used as fattening subjects. These cattle generally have already stopped growing and developing, have a low meat production rate and poor meat quality, so before slaughter they must all undergo a period of specialized fattening, generally controlled at 50-60 days. The first stage is 5-7 days, mainly to train the cattle to come to the trough and learn to eat mixed feed. A small amount of compound feed can first be mixed into ammoniated straw feed for feeding, or the cattle can be left hungry for 1-2 days before feed is offered; after 2-3 days of training, draft cattle can come to the trough and eat. The second stage is 10-12 days, in which, on the basis of restoring body condition, the compound feed is gradually increased, with each cow fed 700-750 grams of compound feed and 100-120 grams of urea per day, divided into 3 feedings.