Pelleted Forage Diets Plus Supplemental Energy and Feed Additives for Finishing Beef Cattle

Abstract

Three experiments involving 136 animals were conducted to study various aspects of finishing beef cattle on forage diets. In the first experiment there were no differences in daily gain (avg .9 kg) between steers fed pelleted sun-cured alfalfa hay and steers fed a pelleted sun-cured red clover-timothy hay mixture nor between steers fed the hay diets with or without 10% dietary molasses. Steers fed a combination of diethylstilbestrol (DES), chlortetracycline (CTC) and ronnel (an insecticide) with the pelleted hay diets gained faster than those not fed these additives (.94 vs .86 kg/day; P<.05). Steers fed alfalfa hay had a higher dressing percentage (57.2 vs 56.2; P<.05) and steers fed no feed additives graded higher (high good vs low good; P<.05) than those of contrasting treatments. In the second experiment beef heifers were fed pelleted alfalfa meal or all-concentrate diets which contained either 5% molasses or 5% soybean oil, and either a combination of DES, CTC and stirofos (larvicide) or no feed additives. Heifers fed grain gained faster (1.00 vs .71 kg/day; P<.001) and more efficiently than those fed alfalfa meal; heifers fed soybean oil gained weight more efficiently than those fed molasses. Ruminal fluid and carcass characteristics were typical for heifers fed forage and grain except that ruminal ammonia concentration of heifers fed alfalfa meal was lower (2.4 vs 5.5 mg/100 ml) and the carcasses of heifers fed alfalfa meal had higher (P<.001) percentages of linoleic and linolenic acids than those of heifers fed grain. In a follow-up experiment, heifers fed pelleted alfalfa hay gained faster than those fed pelleted alfalfa meal (.71 vs .49 kg/day, P<.05), possibly because this meal had been heat damaged during dehydration. Copyright © 1975. American Society of Animal Science . Copyright 1975 by American Society of Animal Science.