Animal Fattening Pdf

[Elisabet Schwartzkopf]

Theusage of automatic feeding systems (AFS) in cattle offers multiple advantages, mostly due to the possibility of an increased feeding frequency. While it is gaining more and more importance in dairy farming, there is still a lack of experience and scientific knowledge regarding its use in fattening cattle. The aim of this study was to describe the behavior of 56 Simmental bulls fed with an AFS six times daily a total mixed ration. The animals arrived at the farm with an average age of 148 11 days. They were housed in four straw-bedded pens in groups of 14 animals each. Their average slaughter age was 558 20 days. Behavioral observations were made during three observation periods (OP) at an average of 11, 14, and 16 months of age. Using scan sampling, feeding, and lying behavior of all animals and the order of bulls feeding after feed delivery were recorded. Furthermore, body condition and health status were monitored and complemented with the carcass weights. Body condition, health status, and carcass weights of the bulls were found to be satisfactory: Mean body condition score increased from 2.8 0.3 in OP1 to 3.0 0.1 in OP3 and mean carcass weight was 432.71 40.82 kg. No severe health problems occurred. The feeding activity of the bulls was spread out over the course of the day with peaks in the afternoon and evening. Percentages of bulls feeding per pen never exceeded 20%, animals feeding mostly alone (during 28.04 2.15% of total observation time) or in groups of two to three (16.61 2.00% and 6.74 1.90%). The order of bulls feeding after feed delivery varied indicating that all animals had similar access to fresh feed. These results emphasize the importance of constant feed availability and quality at any time of the day, thus indicating the ability of an AFS with six daily feedings to ensure such a consistency.

Copyright 2020 Schneider, Volkmann, Kemper and Spindler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Thanks to the breeding of the best-suited animals and to improvements in the techniques used, the period during which Mulard ducks are fattened decreased from 15.6 days to 12.8 days between 1987 and 2005. It has now reached an average of 11 days.

The fattening phase starts at about 11 weeks when the ducks are put in individual cages or collective pens. French farmers committed to a significant upgrade to their farms to remove all individual cages which will be forbidden as of 1 January 2016.

Fattening only lasts about 10 seconds. It consists in carefully placing a mix of whole or ground maize and water in the crop of the duck or goose. To feed, the farmer introduces a smooth tube called an "embuc" into the animal's crop.

Farmers are always careful to ensure that their animals are in good health. This is essential to ensure quality production. They pay particular attention to the health of their animals during the fattening phase. Sick and injured animals are immediately removed from the fattening process and given veterinarian care.

Farmers are very concerned about minimising animal mortality on their farms. This is true at every production step and, in particular, during fattening. Any increase in mortality would mean a financial loss that could threaten their livelihood.

Cattle fattening is a livestock production practice that reduces animal movements thereby fattening cattle more quickly. Larger animals can be sold for more money on the market as they yield more meat.

Since 2002, Mr. Togola has been fattening approximately 100 heads of cattle each year, currently securing a selling price of over 600,000 West African francs (CFAF) per head, compared to just CFAF 300,000 prior to the project. He believes that it is a win-win situation for both traders and consumers. With these new techniques, traders have more meat to sell, and consumers are provided a high quality meat for their money.

ACDP support allowed Mr. Togola to build a 30 meter by 25 meter enclosure for his pasture land. He put up CFAF 3,600,000 and the project provided financing amounting to over CFAF 10 million. As a result of this improved infrastructure, he is now able to purchase many more heads of cattle when prices are attractive, and gradually fatten these cattle when market prices rise.

Mr. Togola believes that this type of system helps build the confidence of commercial banks in cattle traders. Most actors in the cattle fattening and livestock industry find it difficult to secure a loan from banks as they are not able to meet all the required guarantees. However, local banks are more inclined to provide financing whenever they see that the livestock farmers and traders are heavily invested in their ventures, have the necessary equipment, and put up a small amount of capital.

The ACDP, which closed in June 2015, was designed to be a medium-term program aimed at promoting efficient and competitive commercial agriculture capable of providing high-value added products for domestic and foreign markets.

From an agricultural point of view,the tropical regions of the worldare probably the richest in potentialfor crop production, and subsequentlyfor animal production. Nevertheless,until rather recently, therehas not been the development ofintensive feedlot fattending that hastaken place in the developed anddeveloping countries in more temperateregions of the world, e.g., theUnited States and Yugoslavia. Theonly exception to this is perhapsHawaii, but this is atypical since thecattle industry there is based almostentirely on imported grain fromNorth America.

It is the absence of indigenousgrain production which, more thananything else, has delayed developmentof fattening systems in tropicalregions. Rice is certainly one cerealthat can be grown in the tropics,but this is the staple of the humandiet in such areas, and very rarelyhas it been grown for animal feeding.Other more typical feedgrains, suchas maize and sorghum, can be andare produced in the tropics but, up tothe present, success with these cropshas only been on a subsistence basis,and the techniques for their largescalemechanized production haveyet to be developed.

Work in Cuba aimed, among otherthings, at developing intensive beefproduction systems, and followingthe pattern of developments elsewhere,early attention was concentratedon the production of feedgrains.However, it soon becameapparent that economic viability ofsuch a programme was likely to be, atbest, a long-term operation, requiringdevelopment, among other things, oflocally adaptable varieties, suitableto the climate and resistant to theconsiderable insect and fungal attackswhich are commonplace in the tropics.There was also the need toevolve appropriate agronomic proceduresto establish such crops andmaintain them free of weeds in thehot and humid climate typical ofthe wet tropics. Such a programmewould have required many years ofresearch and development beforethe large-scale production of cerealgrains capable of supporting anintensive animal industry could beconsidered.

It was the realization of this situationthat led the writer to examinethe possibilities of using other energysources which, although perhapssomewhat exotic from the point ofview of their current use for livestockproduction in other parts ofthe world, nevertheless had theadvantage of being available in largequantities as by-products of otherestablished industries. Sugarcanemolasses was the obvious choice fordevelopment, in view of the fact thatin almost all tropical countries sugarcaneis grown both to satisfy nationalrequirements for sugar and also toserve as the principal earner offoreign exchange from exports. Developmentof livestock feeding systemsbased on sugar by-productswas particularly appropriate to Cuba,in view of its preeminent role as theworld's major exporter of cane sugar.In Cuba, since approximately 1 tonof molasses is produced for every3 tons of sugar, this is equivalentto the availability of some 2 milliontons of what, theoretically, is ahighly valuable source of energyfrom the point of view of chemicalcomposition.

On examining the literature relatedto feeding molasses to cattle it wasapparent that, although its use inlivestock feeding had been knownfor a considerable time, it was rarelyexpected to provide more than 5 to10 percent of the total ration. Infact, recommendations by sucheminent authorities as Morrisonsuggested that the maximum limitof molasses in the diet should be10 percent, since at higher levels,for example up to 30 or 40 percent,its feeding value could be expectedto decline by almost 50 percent.

Another feature of its use, at leastin developed countries, has been asan integral component of an otherwisedry ration. For a developing country,this would seem an unprofitablesource of development since, becauseof its highly viscous nature, considerablemixing difficulties would bebound to arise as soon as attemptswere made to include high levels inthe ration. The fact that feed millfacilities are also invariably limitedin these countries was another reasonfor not pursuing this line of thinking.

Another initial-decision was thatthe known protein deficiency ofmolasses (normally containing onlysome 3.5 percent of N6.25) shouldbe supplemented by nonprotein nitrogen,specifically urea. The reasonsfor this were that indigenous sourcesof true protein were almost nonexistentin Cuba, and urea, being highlysoluble, could easily be distributeduniformly (and hence safely) in theliquid molasses.

Nevertheless, relative palatabilityof a feed is a poor measure of itsvalue to the animal which, if givenno choice, may eventually eat asmuch of the apparently less palatablefeed as of what would be moreacceptable. To assess the validity ofthis alternative, it was thereforedecided to restrict consumption ofthe other components of the diet inthe hope that this would lead togreater intake of molasses and, as aresult, to better performance.

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