Table 4. Effect of fattening period on performance of Holstein steers

Item	20 mon	21 mon	22 mon	23 mon	24 mon	SEM	p-value¹⁾
No. of heads	12	12	12	12	12
BW (kg)
Initial (8 mon)	236.13	232.32	230.52	231.12	229.32	7.40	0.1342
Fattening (11 mon)	381.24	370.56	371.02	375.85	370.82	8.39	0.1219
Finishing (20–24 mon)	750.39^b	773.91^ab	776.30^ab	806.39^ab	812.84^a	14.29	0.0913
Average daily gain (kg)
Fattening phase	1.30	1.23	1.25	1.29	1.26	0.04	0.1530
Finishing phase	1.39^a	1.36^a	1.21^b	1.18^b	1.10^b	0.03	0.0004
Overall period	1.36^a	1.33^a	1.22^ab	1.21^ab	1.14^b	0.03	0.0536

Probability of the F-test.
Means in the same row with different superscripts are significantly different (p < 0.05).