Summary
The Friesian breed in Ireland is mainly of British origin but with importation of strains from other countries from time to time. An analysis of beef progeny test results in Ireland gave an evaluation of the relative merits of different Friesian strains for beef production. German Friesians were similar to Irish Friesians. New Zealand Friesians were slower growing with inferior carcass conformation but with similar carcass composition to Irish Friesians. Canadian Holstein-Friesian progeny were equal in growth rate to Irish Friesian but were substantially inferior in carcass conformation. The Canadian carcasses had significantly more bone and less fat than the Irish strain, giving about the same percentage of saleable meat for the two strains.
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References
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DISCUSSION ON DR. J. FLANAGAN’S PAPER Chairman: Prof. Dr. D. Smidt
Southgate: Could you expand on the slaughter criteria for progeny-test groups; was it based on age, weight, fatness or a combination of these ?
Flanagan: Animals were reared commercially and purchased when fit for slaughter at approximately two years of age, based on a commercial decision. If animals were not fit for slaughter, then a proportion from each bull was slaughtered.
Thiessen: Could you say something more about the importance of conformation. There was considerable variation in this trait, but not in percentage muscle.
Flanagan: The Irish trade places a lot of importance on conformation. No differences were found here, although previous dissections did detect small differences in composition relative to conformation.
Thiessen: Will the influence of conformation on price change in the future ?
Flanagan: There is no evidence that it has changed in the past.
More O’Ferrall: Would you care to expand on the economic return to the commercial producer of Holstein crosses, compared with Friesian crosses in situations where the factory is vacuum packing the beef, compared to selling carcasses.
Flanagan: Factories do not pay producers any more for Holstein crosses if they are vacuum packing. So you could say that if they were to purchase Holstein crosses for a vacuum packing trade at a discounted price, they could make more profit because of relatively small differences in percent of saleable meat. possible by selective matings between cows within farms, and/or between regions ?
Flanagan: No bias was possible. The cows to which proven and young unproven bulls are mated is predetermined, and then selection within groups is random. All animals were purchased subsequently, unless the price was extremely high.
Langholz: Was there any possibility of selective feeding of animals by farmers ?
Flanagan: Standards are set and monetary premiums are paid to ensure that these standards are kept, so the chances of selective feeding are remote. All dams were Irish Friesian, if this was not clear in the paper.
Fewson: Were the different breeds introduced in different years, and did this introduce biases due to timelag effects, etc. The latter may be expected if there was upgrading in the source populations.
Flanagan: Yes, German sires were compared in 1971 and Canadian sires compared in 1975; so this could lead to small biases.
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© 1982 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Flanagan, J. (1982). Comparison of Beef Performance of Different Friesian Strains from Progeny Test Results in Ireland. In: O’Ferrall, G.J.M. (eds) Beef Production from Different Dairy Breeds and Dairy Beef Crosses. Current Topics in Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0847-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0847-0_2
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