To what extent does the composition of batches formed at the sorting facility influence the subsequent growth performance of young beef bulls? A French observational study

Publication date: Available online 20 February 2020Source: Preventive Veterinary MedicineAuthor(s): Lucile Herve, Nathalie Bareille, Baptiste Cornette, Pauline Loiseau, Sébastien AssiéAbstractTo meet the demands of the beef cattle sector in France, weaned beef calves are transported to sorting facilities and sorted into batches composed of animals of similar body weight (BW) before the beginning of the fattening period. This procedure aims to facilitate animal management. However, it leads to practices that affect animal welfare, health and performance, such as transporting weaned beef calves over long distances and mixing animals originating from different cow/calf farms. In contrast, other potentially beneficial practices, such as pre-weaning vaccination against bovine respiratory diseases (BRD), are seldom taken into consideration when batches are formed. This observational study, based on field data from 15,735 Charolais bulls, aimed to investigate which criteria should be favored for batch constitution by quantifying the effect of batch characteristics on the growth performance of young bulls during the fattening period. Clustering analysis was used to group young bulls exhibiting similar batch characteristics and define batch types. Associations between batch characteristics/batch types and individual growth performance/homogeneity of growth performance (mean and standard deviation (SD) of average daily gain (ADG) and fattening period duration) were studied using line...
Source: Preventive Veterinary Medicine - Category: Veterinary Research Source Type: research