Fattening ability and carcass value of bulls - crossbreds of Bohemian Spotted Cattle with beef breeds

The beef breeds in the Czech Republic have been bred not only as pure-breeds, but also for production crossbreeding with dams of the Czech cattle population. The fattening ability and slaughter performance of bulls (crossbreeds of the darns of both dairy and dual purpose cattle population) was compared with the main beef breeds. The research has been carried out in the progeny testing station under standard conditions on 282 bull progeny of the following breeds: Hereford (HR), Angus (AA), Limousine (LI), Blonde d'Aquitaine (BA), Charolais (CH), Piemontese (PI), and Belgian Blue (BM). The control group was represented by Czech Pied bulls (C1). The performance testing lasted from the 150(th) to the 500(th) day of age (+/-8 days). The CH-crossbreeds (601 kg,1207g, and 693g) reached the highest final fattening weight, daily gain and net weight gain at the end of the fattening followed by C1 and BM. The lowest growth performance was found in the groups PI and HR. The CH, BA, BM, and C1 groups had the greatest slaughter- and flesh-weights. It was found out that the highest fat weights and share was reached by the group AA. The performance results of the bull crossbreeds divided into groups according to their dam genotypes (dual purpose and dairy type) were evaluated as well.