Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Dec 8:60:30.
doi: 10.1186/s40781-018-0188-2. eCollection 2018.

Effects of weaning and castration ages on growth performance, blood metabolites, and carcass characteristics in Hanwoo steers

Hwan Lim #  1 , Jun Sang Ahn #  2 , Min Ji Kim  1 , Gi Hwal Son  1 , Joong Kook Park  3 , Jae Yoon Shim  1 , Il Young Kim  1 , Ji Hyung Kim  1 , Sung Myoun Cho  1 , Eung Gi Kwon  2 , Jong Suh Shin  1 , Byung Ki Park  3
Affiliations

Effects of weaning and castration ages on growth performance, blood metabolites, and carcass characteristics in Hanwoo steers

Hwan Lim et al. J Anim Sci Technol. .

Abstract

Background: Recently, as production costs have been increasing owing to rising feed prices worldwide, shortening the age of slaughter has been recognized as a way to increase farm income. In Korea, the raising period for Hanwoo steers is over 31 months with the delay of weaning and castration stated as one of the reasons for the increase in the raising period. Thus far, studies on age of weaning and castration have been conducted individually, and there have been no studies on the combined effects of weaning and castration ages on the growth performance and carcass characteristics in Hanwoo steers.

Methods: Weaning ages were calculated at 80 or 130 days of age, and castration ages were calculated at 90 days and 180 days of age. Calves were allocated to one of the four treatment groups: W80C90 (weaning at 80 days of age and castration at 90 days of age), W80C180, W130C90, and W130C180.

Results: For the entire experimental period, weaning and castration ages did not significantly affect growth performance of Hanwoo steers. In addition, weaning and castration ages did not affect the overall yield and quality traits of carcass in Hanwoo steers.

Conclusion: Weaning and castration ages had small effects on growth performance and carcass characteristics in Hanwoo steers. Therefore, the early weaning and castration ages are recommended to reduce the slaughter age without any negative effects on meat quality grade.

Keywords: Carcass characteristics; Castration; Growth performance; Hanwoo; Weaning.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Protocols involving the use of experimental animals were conducted in accordance the ethical and scientific guidelines of the Animal Experiment Ethics Committee of Kangwon National University (No: KIACUC-16-0010).Not applicableThe authors declare that they have no competing interest.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Association of Official Analytical Chemists - A.O.A.C . Official methods of analysis. 16. Washington, DC: Association of Official Analytical Chemists; 1995.
    1. Arthaud VH, Mandingo RW, Koch RM, Kotula AW. Carcass composition, quality and palatability attributes of bulls and steers fed different energy levels and killed at four ages. J Anim Sci. 1977;44:53–64. doi: 10.2527/jas1977.44153x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Arthington JD, Spears JW, Mille DC. The effect of early weaning on feedlot performance and measures of stress in beef calves. J Anim Sci. 2005;83:933–939. doi: 10.2527/2005.834933x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cheong JK, Oh YT, Choi HN, Lee CH, Kim KH, Kim KY, Choy YH, Kim HC, Hwang JM. Effects of geographic locations and year-seasons of birth on ultrasound scanned measures and carcass traits of Hanwoo steers. J Anim Sci Technol. 2012;54:247–253. doi: 10.5187/JAST.2012.54.4.247. - DOI
    1. Cosgrove GP, Knight TW, Lambert MG, Death AF. Effects of post-pubertal castration and diet on growth rate and meat quality of bulls. Proc N Z Soc Anim Prod. 1996;56:390–393.