A Relationship between Weight of Internal Fat, ‘Fill’, and the Herbage Intake of Grazing Cattle

Abstract

A SERIAL slaughter technique was used in 1956, 1957 and 1958 to study ‘fill’ and carcass changes on spring pasture. Hereford cross-bred steers, aged 2–2½ years, which had been subjected to different winter treatments were used. In each year, four separate groups of cattle were over-wintered on a high or a low plane of nutrition, in yards and outside in paddocks. Differences varying from an average of ¾ to 1½ cwt. per head were obtained in the different years between high and low plane groups by the end of winter. The low plane groups were fed less silage than the high groups, more straw, and no concentrates, to gain an average per head of ¼ cwt. in one year to 1½ cwt. in another, from January until April.