Meat Qualities of Simmental Cattle under Intensive Farming Conditions in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic

The article studies the meat quality characteristics of Simmental cattle under intensive rearing conditions in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The studies were conducted on 44 newborn male calves of first and second generation crosses in the farms of Guseyn Aslanov and Ilkin Ganbarov in the Babek district under intensive feeding conditions. The experimental animals were kept in a pen for up to 6 months and fattened on pasture for 6 to 10 months. Then, 10 best animals from each generation were separated and sent to fattening in a barn for two months, and the rest were sent for winter feeding. During the fattening period, each head received 6,6 feed units and 678 g of digestible protein per day. The males were slaughtered at the age of one year. Those kept for winter fattening were castrated and slaughtered in the fall, at the age of 21 months, after spring and summer pasture fattening. The live weight of the experimental animals was higher at the age of 18-21 months. This is 1,5 times more than the average live weight of young cattle recently put up for sale in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. To study the meat qualities of the experimental animals, after 60 days of fattening, 8 heads of each crossbred cattle were sent for slaughter at the age of 12 months, and the rest were transferred to winter fattening according to the above scheme, then fattened on pasture for 110 days and sent for slaughter at the age of 21 months. The carcass weight of the second-generation hybrids, including visceral fat, at the age of 12 months was 16,63 kg or 13,1% more, and at the age of 21 months – 22,9 kg or 12,3% more than that of the first generation hybrids. According to generally accepted standards, three individuals were taken from each generation of hybrid animals and divided into types. It was found that the yield of type I meat increased as a result of the experimental animals achieving a higher level of fatness under intensive feeding conditions. Of the total body weight of first-generation crossbreeds at the age of one year, 33,7 kg (55,2%) and 54,2 kg (59,75%) at the age of 21 months belonged to type I; 21,6 kg (35,46%) and 31,1 kg (34,3%) were type II, respectively. For second-generation hybrids, these figures were 42,93 kg (60,17%) and 66,30 kg (64,12%) of the first grade at the corresponding age; The II grade accounted for 22,64 kg (31,8%) and 31,3 kg (30,27%).