Growth and feed efficiency of range performance tested beef bulls in the arid sweet bushveld of South Africa

Lesley Mashiloane, Andre Bothma, Kabelo Madia, Julius Sebei, Khathutshelo Nephawe

Limpopo Department of Agriculture, Polokwane, South Africa.
Mara Research Station, Limpopo Department of Agriculture, Makhado, South Africa.

DOI: 10.4236/ojas.2012.24036                

Abstract

Data consisting of test performance records of 725 bulls was analysed to evaluate trends for growth and feed efficiency, and to determine environmental factors that influence growth of range performance tested bulls in the arid sweet bushveld of South Africa. Performance data were subjected to regression procedures to estimate parameters of the slope (β) and intercept (α) for average daily gain (ADG) and Kleiber ratio (KR). Mixed procedures were applied to test for sources of variation in ADG and KR. There was an increase of 3.481 g/day/year and 0.528 g/day/ year in ADG for Nguni and Bonsmara bulls, respectively. The ADG trends’ respective feed efficiency as reflected by KR was 0.093 and 0.059. Herd of origin and test-year were the sources of variation for ADG while the variation in KR was due to the herd of origin, test-year, start-age and start-weight. Results indicated a steady increase in ADG and KR for range performance tested bulls in the arid sweet bushveld.

Keywords

Bull Performance Testing; Average Daily Gain; Kleiber Ratio

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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