The study aimed at assessing growth and slaughter performance, feeding and social behaviour of
youngmale stocks belonging to three native cattle breeds raised inthe Central-Eastern Italian Alps:
Alpine Grey (AG), Burlina (BU), and Rendena (RE) comparing them to the ones of Italian
Simmental (IS), a cosmopolite dual purpose breed. Twelve male calves/breed were selected by
experts of their breeders association and transferred to the experimental fattening unit at an
average age of 113.9±12.4 days. After a 70-day adaptation period, calves of each breed were
assigned to 3 multiple pens of 4 animals each balanced according to their body weight. The
experimental fattening period started when the animals had an average live weight of 204±6 kg
and it lasted when all young bulls reached the optimal finishing. The animals were fed ad libitum
the same fattening diet distributed as total mixed ration once a day in the morning. The average
daily gain of IS was 1.40 kg/day and it resulted significantly higher than AG and BU (1.16 and
1.20 kg/day respectively), while RE were intermediate (1.24 kg/day). Dry matter intake (DMI) of
AG (6.34 kg/day) was lower than IS (7.45 kg/day), while the other two native alpine breeds
showed intermediate values (BU=7.12; RE=6.99 kg/day). However no breed effect was
observed for feedconversion ratio aswell as for the number ofmedical treatment days.Onaverage,
the young bulls spent 215 min/day eating and 405 min/day ruminating and there was no breed
effect on these activities neither when they were expressed per hour nor per unit of DMI.
Regardless of the breed,more than 70% ofDMIwas ingested during the first 8 h after diet delivery.
Ruminationwas instead prolonged during the evening hours and overnight. Feed selection indexes
did not show any significant difference among breeds. Bulls of AG and RE reached the optimal
finishing status at a younger age than BU and IS. Carcass weight of IS was the highest (336.2 kg)
while the three native alpine dual purpose breeds had similar values (AG=284.3; BU=290.9 and
RE=300.9 kg). No breed effectwas recorded for carcass dressing percentage, SEUROP and fatness
scores. Based on these findings, the use of these native cattle breeds in the Alpine area should be
encouraged not only for cattle biodiversity issue but also for the interesting opportunity given by
their dairy and beef production.