1National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), Research Station Concepción del Uruguay, CC6 (3260) Entre Ríos, República Argentina
2National University of Mar del Plata, Faculty of Agriculture, C.C. 276, (7620) Balcarce, Buenos Aires, República Argentina
3Meat Industries Laboratory, Sciences Feeding Faculty, Entre Ríos National University (UNER), M Tavella, 1450, (3200) Concordia, Entre Ríos, República Argentina.
To characterize the effect of dietary crude protein level on quality and production of meat in Holstein steers, they received complete diets with the same metabolizable energy concentration but different protein content: 12, 14 and 17%, respectively. The average daily live weight gain was 1.32±0.17 kg/head.day−1 without differencesamong treatments (P>0.05). The group that received the highest level of protein consumed more dry matter (P<0.05) and had lower feed conversion than the group of animals with the diet with 12% crude protein. There were no differences (P>0.05) in the chemical composition of meat among the three treatments. The pH values of all the animals were in the range of an optimum value (5.54 to 5.70). There were no marked effects of the dietary protein level on meat production and quality.
Meat quality, dietary protein level, Holstein steers
