Recent research undertaken at Teagasc, Grange – by Mark McGee and David Kenny – examined the feed efficiency of suckler-bred Charolais steers compared to dairy-bred Holstein-Friesian steers.
Due to the expansion of the national dairy herd, there has been a proportional increase in the number of dairy calves coming on stream for beef production.
The study compared the intake, growth and feed efficiency of suckler-bred Charolais (three-quarter bred or greater) with dairy-origin Holstein-Friesian steers.
For the purpose of the study, both groups were individually fed zero-grazed grass, and then a high-concentrate finishing diet over a period of time.
The Holstein-Friesian steers were 24 days older than the Charolais bullocks; this reflects the mean calving dates of the national dairy and suckler cow herds.
Results
When fed zero-grazed grass, the Holstein Friesians were 80kg lighter and had a 70g/day lower growth rate when compared with the Charolais steers.
However, the research indicated that the Holstein-Friesian steers consumed 4% more dry matter (DM) per day; this resulted in a 10% poorer feed conversion ratio (FCR) than the suckler-bred Charolais steers.
In the finishing stage, the older, lighter, slower growing Holstein-Friesian steers consumed 10% more feed (DM) resulting in a 20% inferior FCR than the Charolais.
However, unsurprisingly, kill-out proportion (6 percentage units lower), carcass weight (84kg lighter) and carcass conformation score (6 units poorer, scale 1-15) were considerably inferior for the Holstein-Friesian steers compared to the Charolais bullocks.
Due to the lower kill-out proportion and lower estimated meat proportion in the carcass of the Holstein-Friesian steers compared to Charolais, during the finishing phase, the Holstein Friesians consumed approximately 33% and 50% more feed DM/kg of carcass and meat gain, respectively, than the Charolais steers.