Tactical decisions of concentrate level, slaughter age and carcass weight of bulls of five beef breeds under Norwegian conditions

Beef production based on suckler cow breeds is a relatively new production system in Norway as in most Nordic countries. To ensure the continuation of this production, profitable management practices designed for Norwegian conditions have to be established. Thus a simulation model was developed that integrates the daily feed intake, the daily live weight (LW) gain, silage net energy concentration for beef production (feed units beef (FUb) kg?1 dry matter) and price, concentrate level and price, and carcass price for bulls of the country's five most common beef breeds. In this work the model was combined with production statistics to find general recommendations in the finishing of beef bulls under Norwegian conditions. Among all the five breeds the Limousin bulls had the highest estimated mean daily return and the Hereford bulls the lowest estimated mean daily return from 20 g concentrate kg?1 LW0.75 for the 940 FUb kg?1 silage dry matter, and from 40 g concentrate kg?1 LW0.75 for the 800 FUb kg?1 silage dry matter. Our estimated optimal slaughter ages and carcass weights shows that it pays to more intensively feed during the finishing period for all five breeds. Current farming practice in Norway for the five major breeds studied is that slaughter age is at least two months later with lighter carcass weights than the results expected from following our model estimated recommendations

Model prediction of frost tolerance as related to winter survival of wheat in Finnish field trials

The model FROSTOL simulates course of frost tolerance in winter wheat on a daily basis from sowing on as affected by soil temperature (2 cm), snow cover, phenological development, and a genotypic maximum level of frost tolerance (LT50). A series of cultivar trials in Finland was used to evaluate the model's ability to estimate plant survival in natural field environments during winters with differing weather conditions. Recorded survival was compared with number of intersections between the curves of simulated LT50 and the soil temperature curve for each field. A cumulative stress level (CSL) was calculated based both on number of intersections and FROSTOL simulated stress levels. The correlation between CSL and field recordings was quite low. While the field trials characterize a general ability to stand various types of winter stress, FROSTOL estimates damage caused by the soil temperature regime only. However, FROSTOL simulations seemed to correspond reasonably well to field observations when low temperature was the eventual cause of damage

Tactical decisions of concentrate level, slaughter age and carcass weight of bulls of five beef breeds under Norwegian conditions

Beef production based on suckler cow breeds is a relatively new production system in Norway as in most Nordic countries. To ensure the continuation of this production, profitable management practices designed for Norwegian conditions have to be established. Thus a simulation model was developed that integrates the daily feed intake, the daily live weight (LW) gain, silage net energy concentration for beef production (feed units beef (FUb) kg?1 dry matter) and price, concentrate level and price, and carcass price for bulls of the country's five most common beef breeds. In this work the model was combined with production statistics to find general recommendations in the finishing of beef bulls under Norwegian conditions. Among all the five breeds the Limousin bulls had the highest estimated mean daily return and the Hereford bulls the lowest estimated mean daily return from 20 g concentrate kg?1 LW0.75 for the 940 FUb kg?1 silage dry matter, and from 40 g concentrate kg?1 LW0.75 for the 800 FUb kg?1 silage dry matter. Our estimated optimal slaughter ages and carcass weights shows that it pays to more intensively feed during the finishing period for all five breeds. Current farming practice in Norway for the five major breeds studied is that slaughter age is at least two months later with lighter carcass weights than the results expected from following our model estimated recommendations

New modules for the simulation of timothy yield and nutritive value : regrowth and harvest index

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