Hematological indicators of bulls and their meat productivity depending on the structure of the ration
Authors: Mil O. O. , Hordiychuk N. M. , Nahirniak T. B. , Pivtorak Y. I. 
Published: November 2023

The article reflects the results of long-term scientific research conducted by the department of animal feeding and feed technology on fattening cattle. The task of the research was to study the specifics of the formation of meat productivity by the body of bulls of the Volyn meat breed, depending on the level of feeding, which, under the same type of ration, fully meets the animal's need for nutrients, in particular, in dry matter, available energy, the fractional composition of protein, carbohydrates, minerals and biologically active substances. The question of the organization of full-fledged nutrition of livestock of specialized meat breeds with the same type of feeding all year round using hay-type monoforage is relevant, especially in the practice of fattening young animals, with the aim of obtaining veal meat and young beef. This type of fodder according to the recipe proposed by us is produced at the “Pchany-Dеnkovich” farm. More complex fodder mixtures of three, four and five components have also been developed, based on the principle of field-made compound feed, which has received the name grain hay. Rations of this type do not require the use of concentrated feed when fattening livestock. This is exactly the approach reflected in the materials of the scientific and practical publication on the intensity of the functional growth processes of muscle tissue without excess fat. The data obtained in our research allow us to conclude that there is a direct relationship between the total protein content in muscle tissue and the nutritional qualities of the forage in the ration. Monofeed components such as grain of corn cobs of milk-wax maturity and soybean pods provide a relatively high protein content in the feed, which ensured high average daily gains in live weight with a limited amount of concentrates. The control slaughter of bulls at the end of the experiment showed that the average pre-slaughter live weight was at the level of 541–501 kg. The slaughter yield of the carcass had a direct dependence on the structure of the ration with a slight intergroup difference, which was within 0.8–1.2 % in relation to the first group, whose ration compensated the animals' need for energy and protein due to concentrates and was usually more expensive. Therefore, the replacement of part of the concentrates in terms of nutrition of the second and third groups does not lead to a significant negative impact on the morphological composition of the carcasses, which gives reason to assert the effectiveness of such rations. The conducted studies on fattening bulls of the Volyn beef breed allow us to state that the harvesting of monoforage (corn-soybean) of the hay type, the nutritional value of which is more than 0.5 fodder unit, which contains a sufficient amount of protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and mineral salts, ensures high average daily gains in live weight and has a positive effect on the quality indicators of young beef meat. The production of this type of fodder allows to produce 78.1–99.8 hundredweights of fodder unit from 1 ha of fodder area and 6.1–13.9 hundredweights of digestible protein and makes it possible to reduce the consumption of concentrated feed in the structure of the rations of fattening animals.