The aim of this study was to characterize three different commercial dairy beef fattening systems for intensive Mediterranean fattening programs differing in gender, breed, nutrition, and days of feed in order to describe their performance, behavior, and carcass and meat quality when they were raised simultaneously under the same housing and care conditions. Treatments were three different production systems: (1) crossbred Holstein x beef breeds such as Charolais or Limousine heifers, slaughtered at 10 months of age (CBH10, n = 41); (2) Holstein bulls, slaughtered at 11 months of age (HB11, n = 42); and (3) crossbred Holstein x Angus bulls, slaughtered at 12 months of age (CAB12, n = 37). According to our results, moving from a production system based on Holstein bulls to the crossbred Angus production system has no technical support as no large production and meat quality improvements were observed, and only marketing strategies for meat differentiation and consumer trends could favor this decision.
Keywords: Angus bulls; beef cattle; carcass; crossbred Holstein; growth rate.