THE EFFECT OF IN UTERO AND PREWEANING NUTRITION ON GROWTH OF PIEDMONTESE- AND WAGYU-HEREFORD CALVES FROM BIRTH TO WEANING

摘要

This paper outlines the effect of nutrition in utero and preweaning on growth of calves to weaning, from a Beef CRC experiment aimed at understanding effects of early life nutrition on subsequent animal growth and the development of muscle and fat. Hereford females were mated to sires of selected lines of Piedmontese (highly muscled) and Wagyu (highly marbled), allocated to replicates of 32 head (balanced for foetus sire breed, dam age and weight) and grazed on either poor (native) or good (improved)pastures at Grafton until calving in 2001. At birth, half of the animals swapped pasture types, while the other half remained on their original pasture type until weaning. This resulted in progeny with 4 nutritional treatments from conception to weaning(high nutrition in utero and to weaning (HH), low nutrition in utero, high nutrition to weaning (LH), high nutrition in utero, low nutrition to weaning (HL), and low nutrition in utero and to weaning (LL)), 2 breeds (Piedmontese x Hereford (PxH) and Wagyu x Hereford (WxH)) and 2 sexes (heifers and steers).