The influence of herbage on selected parameters of milk and meat quality

Abstract - Yield, botanic composition and chemical analyses of grass and herbage were measured in seven localities with different altitudes between 450 and 900 metres above sea level. Grass and herbage are the most natural and opti-mal feedstuff for cattle. Grazing management should notably regulate the pasture composition, i.e. support dominance of soft stoloniserous strains of grasses and decrease occurrence of weed and less value strain of gramineous grasses. Grazing in the early growth period supported the development of lower stoloniserous grameous grasses and Trifolium repens. A part of the herbage evaluation was observation milk and meat quality on farms. Due to grazing there were some changes in protein content and protein fraction, although not statistically significant. In graz-ing cows, the part of alfa-lacto-albumin increased. Grazing had also an influence on slaughter body and meat quality. Low content of nutrients in grazing herbage showed lower fat production, especially lower fat accumulation in ventricles and lower part of intramuscular fat.