Monitoring of eating and rumination time by young fattening bulls and relationship to meat yield

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the length of eating and rumination time in young fattening bulls of different ages and also to evaluate the relationship of these parameters to the meat yield of these bulls. Monitoring was carried out on Czech Fleckvieh-Simmental bull breed. In the case of bulls, the length of eating time increases statistically from 117.62 minutes per day at 2 months of age to 314.93 minutes per day and also the length of rumination from 308.56 minutes to 515.88 minutes per day. The rumination time had an apperently positive effect on the classification of bulls according to carcass classification (SEUROP, P < 0.05) when bulls classified in the fleshiness class U achieved a longer rumination time during monitoring (439.48 minutes) compared to bulls who were classified in the fleshiness class R (419.43 minutes). In the case of eating time, there was an opposite trend, when bulls with a shorter eating time (212.10 minutes) were included in class U compared to class R (241.31 minutes), (P < 0.05). There is a positive relationship between the length of rumination and the net weight gain.