Effects of housing condition, feeding style, and age on fattening performances, comfort, and some slaughterhouse characteristics in Eastern Anatolian Red bulls

Abstract

It is crucial to bring domestic animal breeds to production and to produce meat based on sectoral structure. The objectiveof this study was to determine the effects of age, housing condition, and feeding style on fattening performance, comfort, and carcasscharacteristics of the Eastern Anatolian Red (EAR) bulls, a native breed which is suitable for adverse environmental conditions andmarginal land as well as resistant to diseases. Twenty-five purebred EAR bulls (15 head of 2-year-olds and 10 head of 1-year-olds) wereassigned randomly to 1 of 5 finishing programs after allocating by the age, feeding protocol, and environmental conditions. The groupswere housed either individually in pens inside the barn or in paddocks outside the barn during the experimental period. The floor ofthe roofed paddock was cleaned and kept dry. The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences in daily live weightgain, total live weight gain (P < 0.05), and feed efficiency (P < 0.01) among the groups. The differences among the groups were alsosignificant in terms of hot carcass, dressing, and pelvic fat (P < 0.01), as well as weights of noncarcass components (except head) (P