Masters Theses

Date of Award

3-1962

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Animal Husbandry

Major Professor

Charles S. Hobbs

Committee Members

R. J. Cooper, H. J. Smith

Abstract

In the southeastern region of the United States there is an abundance of rainfall with warm temperatures for much of the year. These climatic conditions are favorable for the production of large amounts of forages and grains. However, much of the soil in the South east cannot compete with that of other areas of the country in the production of grain. The most logical method of producing meat products in this area would appear to be to make maximum use of roughages, provided these roughages could be utilized efficiently.

Making maximum use of large quantities of roughages is "right down the alley" for beef cattle because they have the ability, with the aid of rumen microorganisms, to convert these roughages into a usable product. Most post-weaning performance tests of beef cattle have embraced the idea that the best way to test the gain and feed utilization ability of an animal and his ability to pass these qualities on to his offspring is to feed the maximum amount of grain for 140 days, or some similar feeding period, and use his performance during this time as one of the criteria for selection of breeding stock. The justification for feeding a high-concentrate ration is based on the hypothesis that the performance of individual animals will be spread further apart on a high energy ration than on a low energy ration, and in so doing more information will be obtained on the potential production ability of the animals. There is no doubt that the 140-day test has been very instrumental in improving the production ability of beef cattle. However, in addition to being able to do a good job of converting concentrates to beef, cattle need to be bred that can ingest large quantities of low-cost roughages and convert these economically into usable products. Beef cattle, when fed primarily grain rations, are in direct competition with other species which have markedly lower feed conversion ratios. Therefore, the ideal performance testing scheme for beef cattle should identify differences in the ability of individual animals to produce high rates of gain on high-roughage, low-cost rations that the competing species cannot utilize as efficiently. Steers need to possess the ability to gain in the feedlot on high-concentrate rations. Yet, if maximum use is made of roughages, the feedlot period needed to produce steers with the amount of finish that most consumers prefer may only be a very small part of the steer's total life span.

Both high-concentrate rations and high-roughage rations have some advantages as the ration to use in measuring post-weaning performance of prospective breeding bulls. Could a combination of these be used, effectively, to performance test beef cattle and to take advantage of the environmental assets of the Southeast? In absence of experimental data of this nature, a Record of Performance Test was designed by members of the Animal Husbandry Veterinary Science Department at the University of Tennessee with the following objectives in mind:

1. To test the performance of the progeny of various sires.

2. To determine the level of feeding that would do the best job of developing and evaluating bulls to breeding age of approximately 20 months.

This thesis will be concerned with objective two only.

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