Effects of contrasting concentrate feeding strategies on meat quality of growing and finishing dairy bulls offered grass silage and barley based diets.

The objective was to examine the effects of concentrate level (barley grain 39 and 74 g dry matter/kg0.60 live weight) and allocation regime (steady, increased, decreased) on meat quality of growing dairy bulls fed grass silage ad libitum. Chemical, instrumental and sensory analyses were used for measuring quality of longissimus lumborum (LL). Greater concentrate level increased fat content (P = 0.035) and tenderness of sensory analysis (P = 0.009) of LL but did not affect pH, colour, drip loss, sarcomere length, shear force, juiciness or flavour. Periodic concentrate allocation reduced drip loss (P = 0.046) and tenderness (P = 0.001) compared to steady feeding. Observed effects on meat quality were minor and one explanation for this might be low carcass and meat fat content in all treatments. The experiment demonstrated the ability of growing bulls to adapt to different feeding regimes without major effects on meat quality, but simultaneously highlighted the challenge to affect beef quality by practically feasible diets.

Divergent Impacts of Two Cattle Types on Vegetation in Coastal Meadows: Implications for Management.

The proportion of beef cattle in relation to the total number of cattle has increased in Europe, which has led to a higher contribution of beef cattle in the management of semi-natural grasslands. Changes in vegetation caused by this change in grazers are virtually unexplored so far. In the present study, the impacts of beef and dairy cattle on vegetation structure and composition were compared on Bothnian Bay coastal meadows. Vegetation parameters were measured in seven beef cattle, six dairy heifer pastures, and in six unmanaged meadows. Compared to unmanaged meadows, vegetation in grazed meadows was significantly lower in height and more frequently colonized by low-growth species. As expected, vegetation grazed by beef cattle was more open than that on dairy heifer pastures where litter cover and proportion of bare ground were in the same level as in the unmanaged meadows. However, the observed differences may have in part arisen from the higher cattle densities in coastal meadows grazed by beef cattle than by dairy heifers. The frequencies of different species groups and the species richness values of vegetation did not differ between the coastal meadows grazed by the two cattle types. One reason for this may be the relatively short management history of the studied pastures. The potential differences in grazing impacts of the two cattle types on vegetation structure can be utilized in the management of coastal meadows for species with divergent habitat requirements.