A study of growth in calves:I. Carcass tissues

Abstract

SUMMARYCalves were slaughtered at predetermined weights after being fed individually on fresh and reconstituted whole milk at three levels. The highest level of feeding was ad libitum and the lowest was aimed at keeping the calves at their birth weight for 72 days before providing extra milk to allow growth to proceed.Dressing percentage did not decline with age as it did in a previous experiment using roughage in the diet. The faster-grown calves had a higher dressing percentage. It is concluded that both rate of growth and the physical nature of the diet influenced dressing percentage.Muscle: bone ratio and the amount of fat and bone in the carcass were not significantly affected by the rate of live-weight increase.