Meat Science and Muscle Biology Symposium: developmental programming in cattle: consequences for growth, efficiency,...

This paper reviews results of studies on effects of fetal programming and maternal nutrition during pregnancy on growth, efficiency, carcass, muscle, and meat quality characteristics of cattle. It includes results from our Australian Beef Cooperative Research Centre studies on factors such as chronic severe nutritional restriction from approximately d 80 of pregnancy to parturition and/or throughout lactation used to create early-life growth differences in the offspring of cows within pasture-based systems and the effect of these treatments on production characteristics to 30 mo of age. Fetal programming and related maternal effects are most pronounced and explain substantial amounts of variation for growth-related production characteristics such as BW, feed intake, carcass weight, muscle weights, meat yield, and fat and bone weights at any given age but are less evident when assessed at the same BW and carcass weight. Some effects of maternal and early-life factors in our studies were evident for efficiency traits but fewer affected beef quality characteristics at 30 mo of age, explaining only small amounts of variation in these traits. It is difficult to uncouple maternal nutritional effects specific to prenatal life from those that carry over to the postnatal period until weaning, particularly the effects of maternal nutrition during pregnancy on subsequent lactational performance. Hence, experimental design considerations for studying fetal programming effects on offspring during later life are discussed in relation to minimizing or removing prenatal and postnatal confounding effects. The relative contribution of fetal programming to the profitability of beef production systems is also briefly discussed. In this regard, the importance of health and survival of cows and calves, the capacity of cows to rebreed in a timely manner, and the efficiency with which feed and other resources are used cannot be overemphasized in relation to economics, welfare, and the environment.