Detailed Explanation of Key Points of Beef Cattle Improvement and Fattening Technology

I. Technical Introduction. Beef cattle improvement and fattening technology is a technique for beef cattle production that uses various crossbreeding methods, with local yellow cattle as the female parent and introduced excellent beef breeds as the male parent, conducting crossbreeding, utilizing the heterosis of crossbred offspring, and based on their growth and development nutritional requirements, scientifically formulating feed, supplemented with appropriate concentrate for fattening. The bred crossbred offspring not only retain the characteristics of local cattle being tolerant of extensive management and strong adaptability, but also have the advantages of introduced excellent breeds such as fast growth, high meat production, good meat quality, and high feed conversion rate, enabling local yellow cattle to improve in body shape, growth speed, meat production performance and other aspects.
II. Technical Operating Procedures
1. Breeds
Beef cattle breeds mainly used for improvement: Hereford cattle, Charolais cattle, Angus cattle, Limousin cattle, Simmental cattle, Piedmontese cattle, provincial and municipal local yellow cattle.
2. Crossbreeding Models for Beef Cattle
(1) Economic crossbreeding: Also called production crossbreeding, it uses high-yielding breed bulls to crossbreed with local yellow cattle to obtain crossbred offspring with economic value, increase product quantity and reduce production costs to meet the needs of commercial production. For example, crossing Simmental with local yellow cattle, the crossbred offspring outperform local yellow cattle in weight gain speed, slaughter rate, net meat rate and other aspects, and feed costs are lower than local cattle.
(2) Rotational crossbreeding and "terminal" bull crossbreeding methods
① Rotational crossbreeding is a production crossbreeding further developed on the basis of economic crossbreeding, which uses two or more breeds of bulls and cows for alternating crossbreeding, so that each generation can maintain a certain heterosis, thereby obtaining cattle herds with strong vitality and high productivity. The schematic diagram is as follows: Local yellow cattle crossed with Simmental to produce first-generation cows, then crossed with Charolais cattle, the second-generation cows produced are then crossed with Simmental again, and the rotation continues.
② "Terminal" bull crossbreeding system: That is, using breed B bulls to mate with purebred breed A cows, then using the F1 cows (BA) to crossbreed with a third breed C bull, and all F2 offspring regardless of sex are sold, no further crossbreeding, stopping at the final crossbreeding with breed C bulls, which is called the "terminal" bull crossbreeding system. Its characteristic is that it can complement the advantages of breeds to obtain the highest production performance. For example: Simmental crossed with local yellow cattle cows, first-generation crossbred cows crossed with Charolais or Piedmontese bulls, and all their offspring are fattened.
③ Rotational - "terminal" bull crossbreeding system: After two-breed or three-breed rotational crossbreeding generations, 45% of cows are retained for rotational crossbreeding to meet the need for replacement cows; the remaining 55% of cows are mated with breed bulls that grow fast and have good meat quality, to achieve the effect of reducing feed consumption and producing more beef. Another characteristic of this crossbreeding method is that purebred cows do not need to be raised.
(3) Grading-up crossbreeding
Using excellent breed bulls to mate with local yellow cattle, the first-generation crossbred cows produced are then mated with the same excellent breed bulls, producing second-generation crossbreds, and so on generation after generation, until the desired excellent traits are obtained, or the goal of thoroughly improving the local breed is achieved.
3. Beef Cattle Fattening Technology
(1) Beef Cattle Fattening Systems
① 6-month-old calf fattening system: Male calves born in spring are nursed by their mothers until November to December of that year (6 months old) when they are weaned. During the wintering period, concentrate accounts for about 30% of the ration under barn feeding, and at 12 months old, feeding is intensified, with final intensive fattening for 100 to 120 days. At 18 months old, body weight can reach over 450 kg, and they are sold or slaughtered.
② 12-14 month-old calf fattening system: After good grazing management, at 12-14 months old, general fattening is carried out for 4 months first, then intensive fattening for 4 months until 20-22 months old, when body weight can reach over 450 kg.
③ Off-site fattening system: In terms of age, the young can be just weaned, and the old can be 7-8 years old; in terms of sex, they should be steers (i.e., castrated bulls) or bulls. In terms of weight, they should be over 150 kg. Feeder cattle are transferred from the calving area to another area, and after 10-15 days of transitional feeding and disease observation, they undergo intensive fattening for 120-130 days, reaching over 450 kg in body weight, then are sold or slaughtered.
(2) Scientific Feed Formulation
① Feed silage: Making green feed into silage can maintain the succulence of the feed, has good palatability, and can be preserved for a long time, which is a good method for solving winter feed.
Silage raw materials: All green feeds can be made into silage, and those with higher sugar content have better results. For example, corn, ryegrass, sweet potato vines, Chinese milk vetch, radish, etc. are all good silage raw materials.
Silage method: Generally, pit silage is convenient, and tower silage and plastic bag silage can also be used. Silage pits are mostly rectangular. When building a pit, choose a location with dry terrain, relatively hard soil, low groundwater level, good drainage, and close to the cattle barn. The pit capacity is determined by the number of cattle raised; generally, each cubic meter can store 750 kg of silage. If urea is added to the silage material to make urea silage for feeding cattle, the effect is better. Usually, 3-4 kg of urea is added per 1000 kg of silage material. During production, first dissolve the urea in water, then evenly add it layer by layer to the green feed and mix thoroughly.
② Ammoniation of straw: Through ammoniation, straw increases its nitrogen source, improves palatability, and ruminants use the non-protein nitrogen in straw to synthesize needed protein, improving the feeding effect of straw. The straw feed in our city is mainly rice straw, with a small amount of corn and sugarcane tops, etc.
③ Cottonseed cake detoxification treatment: Soak 100 kg of cottonseed cake with 0.75 kg of ferrous sulfate and 250 kg of water for 12 hours, remove and use in combination with other feeds.
④ Rapeseed cake detoxification treatment: Take a large vat, put in 50 kg of rapeseed cake and 150 kg of water, change the water once a day for 3 consecutive days, remove and air-dry for storage.
⑤ Use of feed additives: Daily dosage per head of cattle: baking soda 75 g, growth hormone 25 g, artificial salt 25 g, vitamin A 5 mg. Concentrate formula: Spring and autumn: corn (crushed flat, same below) 70%, cottonseed cake 20.5%, wheat bran 5%, shell powder 3%, salt 1.5%. Summer: corn 68%, cottonseed cake 23.5%, wheat bran 5%, shell powder 25%, salt 1%. Winter: corn 70%, cottonseed cake 22%, wheat bran 50%, shell powder 3%, salt 1%. If corn is unavailable, early rice can be used as a substitute; if cottonseed cake is unavailable, peanut cake, soybean cake, etc. can be used as substitutes, with the amount being 5-7% of cottonseed cake, while increasing the amount of wheat bran. Rapeseed cake can be substituted in equal amounts.
(3) Feeding Management
① Deworming: Administer bithionol orally at 50 mg per kg of body weight, or Jialing Sant
② Daily management procedures: feed preparation, shaking out the feed, feeding, watering and tying up the cattle, brushing and grooming the cattle, cleaning up manure, etc.
III. Scope of application
This technique can be applied to the vast number of farmer households and small- and medium-scale specialized beef cattle producers or beef cattle fattening farms.