Performance and meat quality of fattening bulls fed complete feed with rapeseed oil cake or linseed

The experiment was carried out on 44 Black-and-White Lowland bulls divided into 4 groups and fattened from 155 to 540 kg body weight to investigate the effect of feeding rapeseed oil cake or linseed on bull performance and meat quality. The animals were fed ad libitum a basic complete feed and barley straw (control group) or with similar amounts of supplement fat as linseed, rapeseed oil cake, or rape seed oil. At the end of the experiment 6 animals of each group were slaughtered. The physical and chemical properties of meat, composition of kidney and subcutaneus fat and fatty acid content were estimated. Fat composition and cholesterol levels were analysed in M. longissimus dorsi. Average daily body weight gains of animals were similar in all groups, reaching about 1.26 kg/day. The highest content of linolenic acid (C_{18:3 n-3}) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in the fat was found in bulls fed the ration with linseed. The level of cholesterol in the M. longissimus dorsi of animals fed the experimental complete feed with vegetable oils was significantly lower than in the control group. The physical and chemical properties of meat did not differ among the groups.