エンリッチド・肥育牛
Improved Beef Rearing
千葉孝 東北大学大学院農学研究科附属複合生態フィールド教育研究センター 係長
Takashi CHIBA

Field Science Center, Graduate School of Agriculture Science, Tohoku University

I am Takashi Chiba and I work as aproducing red meat. And ﬁnally, the rearing should besenior staff member for theconducted in an enriched environment from theʻEnvironmentally Friendly Livestock

standpoint of animal welfare. As an enrichment

Courseʼ at the Field Science Center ofmeasure, we have now installed brushes in the cattle

the Graduate School of Agriculture

sheds with a view to stimulating the cattle to behave

Science at Tohoku University.

naturally when they are inside the sheds.

[Slide 1] Although my talk differs a little from what is[Slide 4] The characteristics of the feeding management

written in the text, I am going to talk about the rearing

system used for the Field Science Centerʼs Japaneseof Japanese Shorthorn commercial cattle at the Field

Shorthorn fattening cattle are as follows. (1) As it states

Science Center.

in the text, most of the cattle are male. Mating is carriedout as natural mating between pasturing cattle, and is[Slide 2] As for the outline, the Field Science Center isfollowed by natural delivery that also takes place inlocated about 100km north-northeast of Sendai City inpastureland. (2) The production of fattening cattle

Miyagi Prefecture. The total area of the Field Science

makes greater use of pastureland. (3) Rearing with aCenter is approximately 2,215 hectares. Of this, morehigher feed self-suﬃciency ratio is achieved by limiting

than 600 hectares is used for pastureland. Among thethe input of commercial feed mixture. Lastly, (4) the

livestock being reared are beef breeds including 100

feeding management of the cattle from birth tohead of Japanese Blacks and 100 head of Japanese

shipment is conducted in line with the code of conduct

Shorthorns as well as 50 Holsteins, a dairy breed. For theconcerning feeding management. These are thebeef breeds, the Center carries out integrated

characteristics of the feeding management system. I

management ranging from breeding and rearing towould now like to explain them in a bit more detail withfattening.

the help of photographs.

[Slide 3] This slide shows the concept governing the[Slide 5] Regarding point #1, “natural mating between

rearing of Japanese Shorthorn fattening cattle. Frompasturing cattle”, the photo on the left shows a bull andthe top, rearing should be carried out in considerationa cow mating naturally. The animal at the front is theof animal welfare. Next, cattle fattening should be

cow and the one behind is the bull. At the Center, wecarried out with the focus on roughage. I assume thatput bulls out to grass among the cow heard forusually, even in the case of Japanese Shorthorns,

approximately 50 days, which generally achieves a highfattening cattle are fed on a livestock feed mixture

conception rate.

comprising about 80% cereal grain and 20% rice straw
for roughage. In the Kanto region however, hardly any

The photo on the right shows a cow that has given birthroughage is provided at all. But here at the Field Sciencenaturally in pastureland. Cows that became pregnant inCenter, the cattle are being reared on a mix of 80%

pastureland during the previous year give birthroughage and 20% feed mixture.

naturally in pastureland deep in the mountains, and themothers raise their calves by breastfeeding until

The next point is that the rearing should be aimed at34

ワークショップⅢ

産業動物の福祉と経営October.

we move into the winter season. At the start of thewinter, the rearing cattle are moved from the lowland[Slide 6] Moving on, regarding point #2, “the production

pasture into the cattle sheds. During the winter, theseof fattening cattle by making greater use ofcattle are fed on the Centerʼs in-house made dent cornpastureland”, at the Field Science Center we carry out

whole crop silage pasture silage, feed rice silage andʻthree-season pasturage fattening productionʼ.

bran. This allows them to reach approximately 650kg inGenerally, pasturage for one or two seasons is common,

body weight, at which point they are shipped out.

but the Center has extended this to three seasons inorder to increase the use of pastureland. What this[Slide 11] In the pastureland where the rearing cattle

means is making use of pasturage three times overare pastured for three years, paddocks for capturing

three years with six months counting as one season. I

cattle like this and guide fences are installed. This

will try to explain this in a little more detail now.

picture shows a bull in the act of being grasped. Thesefacilities are used in order to perform body weight[Slide 7] Firstly, during year one, as the photo on the left

measurement and sanitary surveys, which areshows, we begin pasturage in early May by allowing theconducted on a monthly basis. Also, since thepregnant cows to move up into pastureland deep in thepastureland covers a vast area, a total of six water tanks

mountains. Then, as shown in the photo on the right,

have been installed so that the cattle have access tothese cows deliver their calves in May or June. The

fresh water at any time.

mothers and calves spend the summer months in thepastureland together until October. After that, we lead

The photo at the bottom left shows our students taking

them down from the mountains and put them into apart in a practical. The photo in the middle shows acattle shed. The cows remain together with their calves

student practicing blood collection. At the Field Science

for approximately six months. After that time, the calves

Center we try not to use rope to capture and secure

are weaned and placed in rearing stalls.

calves of this size, which weigh about 100kg. Instead,we grasp them by using our own body weight. The[Slide 8] In the second year, the photo on the left shows

calves appear to suffer less stress this way and it also

calves that have grown into rearing cattle. These

seems to take less time to capture them.

animals also spend their second year from May toOctober feeding on pastureland deep in the mountains.

[Slide 12] Next, regarding point #3, “rearing with aThen they are once again brought down from thehigher feed self-sufficiency ratio”. This is achieved bymountains and placed in winter-season cattle sheds.

limiting the input of feed mixture. During the pasturage

During this time, they are fed only on roughage andperiod the rearing cattle feed only on pasture grass andbran produced in-house.

bran, and the bran itself is only given in small amounts
as a supplementary feed. During the winter, the rearing

In the third year, just as in the previous year, they go up

cattle are fed on in-house produced dent corn wholet o t h e m o u n t a i n s i n M a y, w h e r e t h e y f e e d o ncrop silage, in-house produced pasture silage and fed

pastureland until August. In September, they arerice whole crop silage mixed in as roughage. Only

brought down from the mountains and raised on

during the calf period are they fed on a feed mixture

pastureland on the low plains. We do this because thecomprising calf-rearing nutritional feed. We also feeddeep mountain pastureland is at an elevation of about

them bran from the end of calf period, including in

600 meters where the grass stops growing and runs out

rearing period and the fattening period.

earlier in the autumn. So we switch the rearing cattle tothe richer grass of the lowland pasture.

[Slide 13] Lastly, regarding point #4, the “feedingmanagement of the cattle from birth to shipment[Slide 10] Not long after the transfer to lowland pasture,

conducted in line with the code of conduct concerning

Workshop Ⅲ Welfare and Management of Farmed Animals

35

feeding management”, we have established a thoroughquestionnaire results gained high scores, even for beefhygiene management system, an advanced roughage-from cattle reared long-term on a roughage-centeredfeeding method, and rearing target weights. In addition,diet.

we have established considerations with respect tocattle welfare. These consist of five items related to[Slide 17] Finally, Iʼd like to express my own views. At

disease and injury management, feed management,

livestock rearing sites, there are many occasions when

physical environment management, normal behavior

we canʼt avoid causing pain to the animals. For example,management, and cattle fear management.

in the case of cattle, we carry out various activities suchas weaning, dehorning, castration, ear-tagging, nose-[Slide 14] After carrying out rearing management based

ringing, etc. Of course, we must attempt to minimize

on these considerations, during the current year we are

the pain caused in doing these things. In the case ofshipping three head of cattle in May and June. As forweaning, for example, it is necessary to provide enoughthe dressed carcass records, the average shipment age

preparation time for the mother and calf to be togetherof these animals was 35 months, the average shipment

prior to separation. Also, in my opinion, dehorning andweight was 653kg, the meat quality evaluation was B1

castration should be performed using a local anesthetic.

and B2, and the average dressed carcass weight wasThese measures require more working time and335kg. No carcass parts were disposed of. From anincreased costs but they can do a lot to reduce theordinary fattening cattle viewpoint, these results may

burden of stress on the cattle.

seem very poor. But since these cattle were reared
mainly on roughage and on long-term pasturage, I donʼMoving on, the general market evaluation of thet think this can be helped.

fattening cattle we produced this time was low. But theeating quality questionnaire yielded good results. TheThe total cost of feed for the three head of cattle

apparent reason for the low general market evaluation

scheduled for shipment in 2009 is estimated at about

was that the current dressed carcass evaluation

300,000 yen per head.

standard is based on how marbled the meat is. Moremarbled beef is awarded a higher price. So the red meat

[Slide 15] Next, I would like to announce the results ofwe shipped this time fared poorly. As such, we believe

an eating quality questionnaire we conductedthat a red meat evaluation standard is required. We also

concerning beef from the cattle we sold this year. The

think it is necessary to expand red meat consumption

survey items on the eating quality questionnaire coverfurther by appealing the good points of red meat tothe ﬁve items of aroma, texture, tenderness, taste andconsumers.

umami (savoriness), and the total score is calculated byadding up the results for all ﬁve items.

[Slide 18] This concludes my talk. Thank you very muchfor listening.

[Slide 16] First, letʼs look at the steak meatʼs overallevaluation. To create this evaluation, we added these
items here and here. In this evaluation, 58.1% of therespondents answered “good” or “very good”. Next, inthe overall evaluation of the mincemeat, 75.8% of therespondents answered “good” or “very good”. And
thirdly, in the overall evaluation of the assigned meat,
75.8% of the respondents answered “good” or “verygood”. Accordingly, the total evaluation for all three
items showed 67.5% of the respondents answering“good” or “very good”. So, we see that the eating quality

36

ワークショップⅢ

産業動物の福祉と経営䇼Slide 㪈䇽䇼Slide 㪌䇽䇼Slide 㪉䇽䇼Slide 㪍䇽䇼Slide 㪊䇽䇼Slide 㪎䇽䇼Slide 㪋䇽䇼Slide 㪏䇽Workshop Ⅲ Welfare and Management of Farmed Animals

37

38

ワークショップⅢ䇼Slide 㪐䇽䇼Slide 㪈㪊䇽䇼Slide 㪈㪇䇽䇼Slide 㪈㪋䇽䇼Slide 㪈㪈䇽䇼Slide 㪈㪌䇽䇼Slide 㪈㪉䇽䇼Slide 㪈㪍䇽

産業動物の福祉と経営

ASlide : : A

䇼Slide : : A

Workshop Ⅲ Welfare and Management of Farmed Animals

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