Giving steers the same growth-promoting feed additive for two extra weeks—42 days instead of 28—doesn’t make them grow faster or change their meat quality in any meaningful way.

19

Pro

0

Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

19

Community contributions welcome

19

Effect of ractopamine hydrochloride (Optaflexx) dose and duration on growth performance and carcass characteristics of finishing steers.

Randomized Controlled Trial

Animal

2016 Dec

Scientists tested if giving a growth-enhancing feed additive to cattle for 42 days instead of 28 days made them grow bigger or change in other ways — and found it didn’t. So, extending the time doesn’t help or hurt.

Contradicting (0)

0

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No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Effect of ractopamine hydrochloride (Optaflexx) dose and duration on growth performance and carcass characteristics of finishing steers.

Score: 19

DOI: 10.2527/jas.2016-0807

Similar Assertions

Giving steers a special feed additive called ractopamine for 28 days helps them grow leaner meat faster without making them heavier overall—basically, they turn their food into muscle more efficiently, like a better fuel economy in a car.

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When farmers give steers (male cattle) more of a special feed additive called ractopamine, the cows eat less food—but they grow faster and turn the food they do eat into muscle more efficiently.

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Adding ractopamine to pig feed doesn’t make the pigs grow faster day by day, but it does help them turn food into muscle more efficiently and end up with leaner meat.

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