A study on the variation of feed efficiency in station tested beef bulls

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The records of 282 young beef bulls from eight breeds tested from November 1981 to April 1987 at the Ellerslie Bull Test Station, Alberta, Canada, were used to study the variation in feed efficiency among young performance-tested bulls. Considerable variation existed among the animals in both residual metabolizable energy consumption and residual dry matter consumption. The heritability estimates for residual metabolizable energy consumption and residual dry matter consumption were 0.33 and 0.29, respectively. In addition, residual metabolizable energy consumption and residual dry matter consumption were moderately correlated (r = 0.43) with conventional feed-to-gain ratio, indicating that conventional feed-to-gain ratio only accounted for 18% of the variation in residual metabolizable energy consumption or residual dry matter consumption. It was, therefore, worthwhile to use residual metabolizable energy consumption or residual dry matter consumption as separate measures of feed efficiency. For rapid improvement in feed efficiency in beef cattle, selection pressure should be applied to both growth traits and residual energy consumption or residual dry matter consumption. Multi-trait optimum restricted selection indices and similar selection procedures may serve as useful means in balanced selection programs to improve the productivity of beef cattle. Key words: Feed efficiency, residual ME consumption, beef bulls

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: