Some interesting growth statistics
Jun 3 2011
We weighted, copper bulleted and B12’ed our young stock today (rising 1Yrs olds).
I found the stats very interesting (weight gain per day in kgs, since birth):-
Pure Wagyu 0.47kg/day
Piedmontese/Wagyu cross .624kg/day
Pure Piedmontese .705kg/day
Pure Angus .77kg/day
Piedmontese/Angus Cross .932kg/day
The Wagyu’s growth is very poor, and I believe this is caused by Wagyu’s breeding regime where only one trait (marbling) is bred for. In my opinion, breeders should be looking for multiple traits (growth rates, eye muscle area etc).
In the “pure” area, Angus showed better growth than Piedmontese but were significant lower than Angus/Piedmontese crossed animals. In my opinion, this extra growth is mostly contributed to the phenomenon of “hybrid vigor” where the progeny are not resticted by the inbreeding limitations placed on their purebred parents. This phenomenon should not be trivialised. If you crossbreed with purebred animals, you will consistently see such growth disparities.
Put in simple terms – if you want to finish an animal at 450kgs liveweight:
Angus 538 days
Piedmontese/Angus 445 days Thats almost 100 days earlier – almost a third of a year!
Expressed in dollar terms – if they were both killed at 538 days the Piedmontese/Angus would be 123kgs heavier. We sell our beef excluding GST at $13.00/kg. The 123kgs of extra liveweight converts to 45kgs of actual meat. This means an extra $538 returned from this animal!
If commercial cattle raisers looked at these statistics, they would most certainly look to crossbreed – and specifically with Piedmontese.
Interesting stuff!