Carcass quality traits of fattening beef cattle in smallholder farms in Sakon Nakhon province

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate descriptive statistics of carcass traits and to investigate the factors affecting the traits. Data were collected from smallholder farms by the livestock cooperatives in Sakon Nakhon province, from 2013 to 2023. Total data were 4,544 records used in this study. Descriptive statistics analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and post-hoc analysis using Tukey’s range test were applied. The descriptive statistics showed that means±standard deviation of HCW, DP, starting weight, ending weight, and fattening days were 325±40.9 kg, 54.9±2.3 %, 392.8±29.2 kg, 598±66.7 kg, and 360.5±88.7 days, respectively. This study of factors affecting the carcass traits indicated that covariance of fattening days, and starting weight had highly influenced HCW and DP (P<0.01). In addition, the effects of farm, sex, breed, and age at fattening had a significant impact on the carcass traits (P<0.05). The HCW and DP of males (330.3 kg for HCW, and 55.3 % for DP) were significantly higher than females (323.1 kg for HCW, and 54.3 % for DP) (P<0.05). Crossbred of Limousine showed inferior HCW (316.2 kg) and DP (53.2 %) when compared to Charolais (332.5 kg for HCW, and 56.7 % for DP), and Brahman crossbreds (328.7 kg for HCW, and 54.8% for DP) (P<0.05). Beef cattle with more than two years old had significantly superior carcass traits compared to a one-year-old (P<0.05). Interaction between farm, sex, breed, and age were non-significant differences between them.