Patterns of Growth and Development in Cattle

Section 1 : Patterns of Growth and Development of Bone, Muscle and Fatty Tissue.- Historical and general review of growth and development.- Bovine compositional interrelationships.- Dressing percentage in relation to weight, sex and breed.- Development with age of the anatomical composition of the carcass of bulls.- Biochemistry of muscle in relation to growth.- Development of connective tissue and its characteristics.- Sources of variation in muscle weight distribution.- Variation and impact of muscle thickness.- Bone growth and development with particular reference to breed differences in carcass shape and lean to bone ratio.- A note on conformation and meat characteristics in beef carcasses.- Meat amino acid composition of calves and steers slaughtered between 200 kg and 500 kg live weight.- Myorheological, chemical and colour characteristics of meat in water buffalo and bovine calves slaughtered at 20, 28 and 36 weeks.- Assessment of changes in myofibre size in muscle.- Partition and distribution of fatty tissues.- Factors affecting the fatty acid composition of depot fats of cattle and other ruminants.- The development of adipose tissue in cattle.- The development of fat cells in different anatomical positions in carcasses of young bulls, heifers and cow-heifers.- Fatty acid composition of fat in water buffalo calves and bovine calves slaughtered at 20–28 and 36 weeks of age.- Effect of Finnish landrace and Galway breeds on carcass composition, fat distribution and fatty acid composition of different fat depots in lambs.- Discussion.- Section 2: Growth and Nutritional Efficiency and the Effects of Genotype, Sex, Hormones and their Interactions.- Biological models of quantifying growth and efficiency.- Some neuroendocrine aspects of growth.- Anabolic agents in beef production: their action as growth promoters.- Nutritional efficiency of protein and fat deposition.- Feed efficiency and genotype-nutrition interactions in growing animals, particularly in cattle for beef production.- Effect of energy level on growth and efficiency.- Influence of nutrition on the growth pattern of fattening bulls of two different breeds (Friesian and Simmental).- Influence of nutrition on body composition and carcass quality of fattening bulls of different breeds (German Friesian and Simmental).- Nitrogen utilisation of young fattening bulls kept on two different energy levels.- Genetic variations in growth and body composition of male cattle.- Effect of breed and interaction with nutrition.- Effect of siregroup within breeds on growth and efficiency and interaction with nutrition.- Efficiency of lean meat production by dairy steers.- Multibreed comparisons of body weight and food intake in cattle.- Influence of age, nutrient intake and body type on weight gain and body composition in young fattening bulls of the breeds German Schwarzbunte and German Fleckvieh.- Carcass composition of different breeds.- Growth rates and carcass composition of water buffalo calves and bovine calves slaughtered at 20, 28 and 36 weeks.- Discussion.- Section 3: Possibilities for the Improvement of Beef Production in Relation to the Customer’s Requirements.- Possibilities for fulfilling trade and consumer requirements for meat quality in present and future beef production systems.- Targets for beef production in relation to market and consumer requirements.- Eating quality of buffalo and bovine calves slaughtered at 20-28 and 36 weeks of age.- Discussion.- Section 4: Methods of Quantifying Growth and Development.- Methods of quantifying growth and development: general review.- A survey of allometric analysis.- Growth curves: their nature, uses and estimation.- Nutritional models of growth.- Quantifying breed difference in shape.- An approach to the comparison of growth curves of Dutch Friesian, British Friesian and Holstein Friesian cows.- The relationship between growth curve parameters and carcass composition.- Discussion.- Section 5: Summary and Needs for Future Research.- Recapitulation and Outline for the Future.- General discussion.- Final considerations.- Closing remarks.- List of participants.