Disease & heat resistance

Plasticity of feed intake of crossbred cattle during the postweaning period

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Abstract

Breed differences in feed intake and body weight have been observed in young beef cattle and these differences have been attributed to genetic effects. The past decade saw the warmest years, with the 2015/16 season being the warmest and driest recorded in South Africa. This suggests that use of heat-tolerant breeds will be an important strategy for successful efficiency in beef production. Calves were produced in a three-breed diallel cross of Afrikaner, Bonsmara and Nguni augmented with topcrosses to Angus and Simmentaler sires. Raw data was collected from a GrowSafe feeding system during a time period in which all breeds were fed concurrently. The binary indicator of heat stress (temperature humidity index > 72) had highly significant (P P P P = 0.34). As the environments in which livestock are reared become more variable, animal robustness becomes an increasingly valuable attribute. The challenge of food security for the increasing human population will unavoidably decrease the use of human-edible foodstuffs for feeding livestock. Including robustness in future breeding and management plans suggest being able to measure and quantify it, but no single, simple and useful measure of robustness currently exists.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Pyoos, G., MacNeil, M., Scholtz, M., Seshoka, M. & Neser, F., (2026) “Plasticity of feed intake of crossbred cattle during the postweaning period”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2281901. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.23464

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