Twenty-two purebred Charolais bulls were fed concentrate ad libitum from weaning through 550 days of age. Puberty, defined as the age at which the first ejaculate containing a minimum of 50 × 106 sperm with at least 10% showing progressive motility was collected by artificial vagina, was attained at a mean age of 41 ± 1 weeks and a mean body weight of 396 ± 13 kilograms. One bull was removed from experiment after 365 days of age because of chronic bloat, three bulls lacked data for feed consumption and six bulls had not attained 2 years of age when the data were analyzed. Mean body weights of 356 ± 10, 520 ± 11, 744 ± 14 and 859 ± 20 kg were recorded at 265, 365, 550 days and 2 years of age, respectively. Average daily gain (ADG) and feed efficiency during a 285-day test (265 to 550 days of age) averaged 1.35 ± .03 and 8.09 ± .16 kilograms.
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Barber et al. (1975) studied this question.