Beef Productivity of Limousine Cattle at Stable Keeping

The regularities of the post-embryonic development of farm animals have been studied by numerous researchers. Their ontogenesis is a result of the complex interaction of animal genotype with those conditions of the external environment in which their hereditary basis is realized. In Russia, the stable keeping system of the cattle is highly relevant as many farms do not have large areas allocated for natural pastures. Therefore, a task has been set to study the growth, development and beef productivity of Limousine cattle in the age aspect under stabling conditions, namely, bulls from the birth to meat production and heifers from birth to first-calf heifers. The object of research was purebred bulls and heifers of Limousine breed, which are grown on the territory of the Central Chernozem area of the Russian Federation. It has been established that intensive use of Limousine cattle contributes to the rapid increase of high-quality beef. The performed studies showed that Limousine bulls and heifers demonstrate essential differences in growth intensity. In main age periods, bulls outnumbered heifers by 160.2 kg in live weight and 451.6 grams in average daily growth and also proved to be more stress-resistant to changes in external conditions. When estimating beef productivity, limousine bulls are characterized by a rather high live weight of 688.7 kg. The slaughter yield of 20 monthly bulls was 63.2%.