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The Effects of Oral Estrogens and Androgens Singly and in Combination on Yearling Steers¹

Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Station^,3

Abstract

The feeding of 10 mg. of diethylstilbestrol or a combination of 5 mg. of diethylstilbestrol and SO mg. of methyl testosterone to fattening yearling steers resulted in a 12% increase in growth rate over a 179-day trial. The increase in growth rate was not evenly distributed over the entire trial but in the case of stilbestrol-fed steers occurred during the first 98 days of the trial.

All lots of steers consumed approximately the same amount of feed per day. The improvement in feed efficiency of the diethylstilbestrol or diethylstilbestrol-methyl testosterone steers was of approximately the same pattern as the improvement in growth rate. Stilbestrol-fed steers required 18% less feed per unit of gain during the first 98 days of the trial and 5% more feed per unit of gain during the last 81 days than the control lot which received no hormone. Steers receiving the combination of male and female hormone-like substances required 8% less feed and 14% less feed per unit of gain during the two respective periods of the trial than the control animals.

Steers fed no hormone dressed significantly higher than steers fed diethylstilbestrol (P 0.05), whereas steers fed a combination of stilbestrol and testosterone dressed significantly higher than the steers fed stilbestrol (P 0.05) or steers fed with either testosterone alone or no hormone (P 0.05).

The carcasses from the hormone-fed steers were slightly inferior, according to Federal Grading Standards, to carcasses from steers which had not received hormones.

Twelfth rib samples from carcasses of steers which had not been fed hormone contained significantly more fat and less moisture and protein than those from steers which had been fed either diethylstilbestrol or methyl testosterone.

¹ Contribution from the Department of Animal Husbandry, Journal Paper No. 950.

² The authors wish to express their appreciation to Eli Lilly and Co., Indianapolis, Indiana, for establishing a grant to assist in the financial support of this project.

³ Lafayette, Indiana