Environmental effects on Charolais economic traits in a Hungarian beef farm over the years of 2012-2016
Absztrakt
Demand for high quality animal proteins is continuously increasing globally. One of the sources of these proteins is meat, of which beef takes a large proportion of meat from domesticated animals. Accordingly, beef production is therefore expected to increase, and thus research on the same to improve quality and quantity of beef and its products will increase. This study focused on Charolais beef breed on the farm conditions, one of the best beef breeds in Hungary. This study took place in Zsellér farm, one of the beef producing farms that seek to collaborate with research institutions in order to improve its performance and for academic purposes. This farm breeds Charolais beef breeds under a cow-calf production system. Data were entered and subjected to statistical analysis using SAS computer program, analysis of means was run to determine factors affecting the studied traits. The main objectives were to investigate the trend and effects of season on economic traits (birth, weaning weights and birth score), to determine the relationship between birth score, birth and weaning weights and to establish the relationship between gender and birth score, weaning and birth weights. While birth weight increased over the years, weaning weight had a fluctuating trend with a sharp fall in 2013 before picking up again at a slow rate. In addition, the season has a significant effect on weaning weight despite having no significant effect on birth weight. It was also revealed that birth score has an effect on weaning weight but not on birth weight. However, birth weight has an effect on weaning weight. Effects of gender were also investigated and results revealed that males are heavier than females and hence experience many cases of dystocia, additionally, gender has an effect on skin color.