Short Communication: The Pre-transport management of antemortem stress in cattle: Impact on carcass yield

Grumpelt, B., Hoffer, W., Curie, O., Jones, O., Jones, K., Kimmel, D., McDonald, B., Paterson, R. and Schaefer, A. 2015. Short Communication:The Pre-transport management of antemortem stress in cattle: Impact on carcass yield. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 95: 557–560. Transport and handling of cattle can have a significant impact on carcass weight loss. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of providing pre-transport nutritional therapy containing selective amino acids, electrolytes and an energy source, on carcass weight loss. One hundred and ninety British crossbred steers averaging 611 kg were used in the study. The treatment cattle received 1 kg of a nutritional supplement top dressed onto their normal silage diet 24 h prior to transport. Following a 1-h transport period the cattle were processed at a federally inspected beef plant and both hot and cold carcass yield as well as yield grade and quality grade were assessed. Cattle provided with pre-transport nutritional therapy demonstrated a reduction in percentage live weight loss (P<0.01) as well as 1.2% greater hot carcass yield as a proportion of pre-treatment farm weight (P<0.01). The data suggest the use of nutritional support pre-transport is beneficial to carcass yield.