Effects on performance and carcass composition of turning beef cattle out to pasture early in the spring

Abstract The effects of turning beef cattle out to pasture earlier in the spring than is conventional in Northern Ireland on performance until slaughter in late summer were examined. Thirty‐eight steers, which were initially 525 kg live weight (LW), were divided into blocks of two according to breed type, previous plane of nutrition and LW and were allocated to two treatments at random within each block. Steers on Treatment 1 were turned out to pasture on 14 March and grazed a permanent perennial ryegrass‐based pasture with a mean sward surface height of 8·4 (s.e. ± 0·36) cm until Treatment 2 steers were turned out on 2 May. Thereafter, all steers grazed as a single group until slaughter at the same estimated carcass fat content, which occurred between June and September. Between the two turnout dates, steers on Treatment 2 were given grass silage ad libitum. For the early and late turnout treatments, respectively, LW gains between the two turnout dates were 1·5 and 0·7 kg d^?1, carcass gains from 14 March until slaughter (mean 143 d) were 0·69 and 0·53 (s.e. ± 0·022) kg d^?1, and carcass weights were 370 and 347 (s.e. ± 2·7) kg. It is concluded that, under the conditions of this experiment, turning beef cattle out to pasture in early spring may offer economic benefits in beef production in situations in which this is practicable.