2.3. Management during Finishing Period

All bulls were housed on slatted accommodation during the finishing period, the mean duration of which is shown in Table 1. The dimensions of the pens were 3.4 m × 2.7 m. Each treatment group was split into three pens of four and one pen of two bulls and randomly assigned a pen number. All bulls were finished on ad libitum concentrates and grass silage. Therefore, GA and HA bulls continued on ad libitum concentrate feeding. The G and G2 bulls were initially offered 2 kg/h/d and 3 kg/h/d, respectively and gradually built up to ad libitum over a duration of seven and sex weeks, respectively. Concentrates were split into two equal feeds when supplementation was between 5 and 8 kg. Bulls were slaughtered at a mean age of 15.5 months.