Gestational Nutrition Impacts on Net Fee

Summary

​This project  evaluated the effect of dietary protein in beef heifers calving at 2yo during the peri-conception period and first trimester on subsequent development of the bull calf progeny which were generated from a concurrent ARC/ S.Kidman/ Ridley funded research trial. The entire males were transported to Tullimba feedlot at 528 days of age weighing 536 kgs and their feed intakes and weight gains were individually monitored. After 70 days on feed they were slaughtered at an abattoir at Warwick and their carcase traits were evaluated.  The effects of maternal dietary protein intake during the peri-conception period and first trimester section upon NFI and carcass traits are reported.  High protein diet during the first trimester (23dpc to 98dpc) resulted in an increase in EMA, dressing %, estimated retail meat yield and tended to decrease subcutaneous fat in the entire male offspring. While the economic cost of protein supplementation to yearling heifers in a northern range environment would potentially be difficult to justify in terms of the change observed in carcase traits alone, in combination with other positive effects observed in this much larger study on increased conception rate, reduced fetal loss, improved calf health and early reproductive development in the male progeny, the manipulation of maternal nutrition may be cost-effective.