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Finishing Beef Steers on Forage Diets with Additives and Supplemental Lipid

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705

Abstract

Finishing beef cattle on forage diets was investigated in three factorial experiments involving a total of 154 steers. In the first experiment, rate of gain differed little between steers fed a diet of 94% ground alfalfa hay or 94% dehydrated alfalfa meal, or between steers fed the diets in ground or pelleted form. Steers fed 30 ppm dietary monensin³ consumed an equal quantity of feed daily but gained 25% faster (1.15 vs .92 kg, P<.001) than those not fed monensin. A hormonal implant of 200 mg progesterone and 20 mg estradiol benzoate (Synovex S³) stimulated average daily gain by 42% (.85 vs 1.21 kg, P<.001). The growth response to monensin and the hormonal implant were additive. The second experiment was conducted to verify the animal responses to monensin and the implant observed in experiment 1. The basal diet contained 96% ground alfalfa hay, and the growth rates of steers fed monensin or implanted were 21 and 35% greater, respectively, than control steers. Growth responses were additive in this experiment also.

In the third experiment steers were fed either ground alfalfa or ground orchardgrass hay with 6% added animal fat or with a formaldehyde-protein-lipid complex³ added to also give 6% dietary animal fat. Steers fed alfalfa gained more weight than those fed orchardgrass (1.12 vs .56 kg, P<.001); the gain between lipid treatments was not different.

¹ USDA, ARS, Nutrition Institute, Ruminant Nutrition Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705.

² USDA, ARS, Agricultural Marketing Research Institute, Meat Science Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705.

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