The effects of two management practices on the growth of steers between eight and twenty months and on the composition of the grazed pasture

Abstract

Results are presented of an experiment conducted in western Victoria from 1964 to 1966. The effects of rate of stocking, and conserving and feeding back hay on growth and meat production of steers between eight and twenty months were studied. Animals grazed continuously on the whole area of each plot, except during conservation. Where hay was conserved and fed back, liveweight gain and final carcase weight, together with muscle and fat measurements of animals, were significantly greater than those of animals in treatments where there was no conservation. Two treatments, 3.16 steers per hectare with conservation, and 2.17 steers per hectare without conservation, yielded carcases weighing approximately 230 kg with a backfat thickness of 10 mm, currently preferred by butchers. In successive years, mean annual liveweight gain increased. There were similar increases in the dry matter yield of pastures when measured in late winter, and the percentage of legume in the sward at this time.