Muscle: Bone ratios in beef rib sections.

Thirty-eight steers and thirty heifers (14 to 17 months of age, from F(1) Hereford × Brahman cows bred to Angus or Hereford bulls), were either forage-fed for 123 days on millet-bermudagrass pasture or grain-fed for 90 days on a high-concentrate diet and were then commercially slaughtered. Warm carcass weights ranged from 167·8 kg to 324·3 kg. At 24 h post mortem, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station personnel (1) assigned scores or took measurements on each carcass for all factors used in yield grading and quality grading, (2) measured the length of hind leg (HL) and carcass length (CL) and (3) assigned a score for carcass muscling (MS) and, as appropriate, made an adjusted longissimus muscle area (ALA) evaluation. The 9th-10th-11th rib section from one side of each carcass was physically separated into longissimus muscle, fat, 'other soft tissue' and bone and ether extract determinations of the longissimus muscle and 'other soft tissue' components were made and used to adjust the yields of each of these components to a fat-free basis. Muscle to bone ratios ranged from 2·38 to 4·37. With both age and carcass weight held constant, diet, breed and sex explained only 35·8% of the variation in muscle to bone ratio. The best simple correlation with muscle to bone ratio was ALA/CL (r = ·59). Other measures significantly correlated with muscle to bone ratio included ALA (r = 0·55), MS (r = 0·50) and carcass weight (r = 0·49). Multiple regression analyses identified a three-variable subset comprised of ALA, carcass weight and CL which was related (P < 0·01) to muscle to bone ratio R(2) = 0·41). Data suggest that muscle to bone ratios differ widely among beef carcasses of similar genetic-management history and that there are carcass measures useful for predicting muscle to bone ratio.

Hematologic study of effects of levamisole on stressed cattle.

The effects of shipping stress, increased serum cortisol concentrations, and levamisole treatment on the hematologic values of cattle were studied. Complete blood counts were done on blood samples from 40 calves; samples were collected 9 times during a period that began immediately after the calves were weaned and continued through an auction barn-truck transport cycle plus 5 weeks. The object of the study was to determine whether the combination of shipping stress and levamisole treatment would alter the hematologic values (granulocytic series). There was no effect observed.

Effect of dietary monensin on ovarian response following gonadotropin treatment in prepuberal heifers.

Twenty prepuberal Charolais X Brahman-Hereford heifers were randomly assigned to be fed a concentrate containing either 0 mg (C) or 200 mg (M) monensin sodium/head/day. Coastal bermudagrass hay was fed ad libitum. Average daily gain was similar for the two groups. Each heifer received 1 mg of porcine follicle stimulating hormone (FSH-P) (Armour) at 0800 and 2000 hr on days 22 through 26 (10 mg total) and 2,500 IU human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) on day 27. Flank laparotomy was performed on day 30, for examination of ovaries, and ovariectomy was performed on day 37. The average ovarian size +/- standard error at day 15 ws 3,730 +/- 66 mm3 and 1,848 +/- 55 mm3 for groups M and C, respectively (P < .025), as measured by rectal palpation. Numbers of ovulation sites measured on day 30 were 9.1 +/- 2.2 and 4.9 +/- 1.8 per heifer for groups M and C, respectively (P < .01). After ovariectomy on day 37, heifers fed M were found to have greater ovarian weight (P < .05), more corpora lutea (CL) (P < .05), greater total luteal weight (P < .05), more follicles (P < .01) and greater weight of follicular fluid (P < .05) and stroma (P < .025) than controls. CL were analyzed for progesterone content by spectrophotometric procedures. Heifers fed M had slightly larger CL (P < .10) with progesterone concentrations similar to those in CL from controls. This resulted in more luteal progesterone per CL and more luteal progesterone per heifer in the M heifers than in the controls. Prepuberal heifers fed M, which caused the expected shifts in rumen fermentation and volatile fatty acid production, exhibited an enhanced ovarian response to gonadotropins compared to that exhibited by controls.