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The Relationship of Feed Efficiency to Digestion Rates of Beef Cattle¹

Texas Agricultural Experiment Station²

Abstract

Data from ten steer calves of Hereford and of Aberdeen Angus x Shorthorn breeding were used to determine the degree of correlation between feed efficiency and digestion coefficients, between rate of gain and feed efficiency, and between rate of gain and digestion coefficients.

Data presented from one trial indicated that digestion of crude fiber was related to feed efficiency, indicating that digestion of crude fiber is possibly one of the more important factors affecting feed efficiency. In a second trial with a ration lower in crude fiber the correlation coefficient for crude fiber digestion followed a similar pattern but only approached significance. Digestion of other food nutrients did not appear to be significantly related to feed efficiency under these conditions.

Results from the two digestion trials carried out with the ten calves indicated that differences in rates of gain were probably not due to any large extent to individual differences in digestive powers of the animals.

Feed efficiency was found to be significantly correlated with rate of gain.

¹ This work was done under R-M 714, a state contributing project to the Southern Regional Beef Cattle Breeding Program S-10 and in cooperation with the Bureau of Animal Industry U.S.D.A.

² Departments of Biochemistry and Nutrition and Animal Husbandry. College Station, Texas.