Growth Dynamics and Meat Productivity of the Kushum Horse Breed

Abstract

In the conditions of the south-eastern zone of the Almaty region under herd management conditions without altering the existing husbandry practices the meat productivity of Kushum breed of horses is increased in the Bayserke Agro Farm due to breeding of highly productive stallions and mares of the Kushum breed. The primary objective of this study is to assess the productivity, growth patterns, and morphological quality of meat from Kushum breed horses within the framework of Bayserke Agro LLP Farm located in the Almaty region. The population of Kushum stallions and mares differs from local Kazakh horses in having better meat conformation and higher live weight. In terms of live weight, Kushum breed stallions exceed the standard of the first class by 42.6 kg (8.52%) and mares respectively by 12.5 kg (2.66%). The Kushum horses at the farm exhibit well-developed meat conformation, rapid growth, and a large chest circumference. With high live weight and perfect meat conformation, we analysed body weight gain in the spring and autumn periods. During fattening the young stock of the Kushum breed, which came out of the summer heat in the state of lower-middle fatness, reached the highest condition. Studies have shown that for the first 20 days of autumn fattening the average daily gain of stallions reaches 805-725 g per day. Then on the 40th day of fattening the average daily gain decreases and reaches 510-260 g, and at the end of fattening on the 60th day of fattening 80-70 g. When slaughtering foals after fall fattening, carcasses with high slaughter yield (53.3-51.6%), high flesh content (80.2-82.5%) and relatively low bone content (17.5-19.8%) were obtained.