A comparison of silage-based and dried forage-based diets for finishing beef cattle

Steen, R. W. J.; Moore, C. A.

doi:10.1017/s0003356100037016

Cited by 14 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Consistently, with the present meta-analysis, Steen (1996) reported that there was a tendency for steers given concentrates containing SBM to produce fatter carcasses than those given barley alone. In addition, Steen (1988b) and Moore (1988 and found that increasing protein intake tended to increase carcass fatness, although the effects only reached significance when the combined results of a series of experiments were analysed together (Steen, 1988a). Lowman et al (1985) reported that supplementation of grass silage with a mixture of barley and FM rather than with barley alone reduced the lean content of the forerib joint of steers by 3%.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of protein supplementation for growing cattle fed grass silage-based diets: a meta-analysis

Huuskonen

Huhtanen

Joki‐Tokola

2014

Animal

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The objective of this meta-analysis was to develop empirical equations predicting growth responses of growing cattle to protein intake. Overall, the data set comprised 199 diets in 80 studies. The diets were mainly based on grass silage or grass silage partly or completely replaced by whole-crop silages or straw. The concentrate feeds consisted of cereal grains, fibrous by-products and protein supplements. The analyses were conducted both comprehensively for all studies and also separately for studies in which soybean meal (SBM; n = 71 diets/28 studies), fish meal (FM; 27/12) and rapeseed meal (RSM; 74/35) were used as a protein supplement. Increasing dietary CP concentration increased ( P < 0.01) BW gain (BWG), but the responses were quantitatively small (1.4 g per 1 g/kg dry matter (DM) increase in dietary CP concentration). The BWG responses were not different for bulls v. steers and heifers (1.4 v. 1.3 g per 1 g/kg DM increase in dietary CP concentration) and for dairy v. beef breeds (1.2 v. 1.7 g per 1 g/kg, respectively). The effect of increased CP concentration declined ( P < 0.01) with increasing mean BW of the animals and with improved BWG of the control animals (the lowest CP diet in each study). The BWG responses to protein supplementation were not related to the CP concentration in the control diet. The BWG responses increased ( P < 0.05) with increased ammonia N concentration in silage N and declined marginally ( P > 0.10) with increasing proportion of concentrate in the diet. All protein supplements had a significant effect on BWG, but the effects were greater for RSM ( P < 0.01) and FM ( P < 0.05) than for SBM. Increasing dietary CP concentration improved ( P < 0.01) feed efficiency when expressed as BWG/kg DM intake, but decreased markedly when expressed as BWG/kg CP intake. Assuming CP concentration of 170 g/kg BW marginal efficiency of the utilisation of incremental CP intake was only 0.05. Increasing dietary CP concentration had no effects on carcass weight, dressing proportion or conformation score, but it increased ( P < 0.01) fat score. Owing to limited production responses, higher prices of protein supplements compared with cereal grains and possible increases the N and P emissions, there is generally no benefit from using protein supplementation for growing cattle fed grass silage-based diets, provided that the supply of rumen-degradable protein is not limiting digestion in the rumen.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of protein supplementation for growing cattle fed grass silage-based diets: a meta-analysis

Huuskonen

Huhtanen

Joki‐Tokola

2014

Animal

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“…Consistently with the present meta-analysis, Huuskonen et al (2014) observed that increased dietary CP concentration increased carcass fat score of growing cattle. Also Steen (1988b) and Moore (1988 and1989) found that increasing protein intake tended to increase carcass fatness, although the effects only reached significance when the combined results of a series of experiments were analysed together (Steen 1988a). Information on the reasons for increased fat deposition with increased protein intake is limited.…”

Section: Carcass Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of a model to predict BW gain of growing cattle fed grass silage-based diets

Huuskonen

Huhtanen

2015

Animal

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The objective of this meta-analysis was to develop and validate empirical equations predicting BW gain (BWG) and carcass traits of growing cattle from intake and diet composition variables. The modelling was based on treatment mean data from feeding trials in growing cattle, in which the nutrient supply was manipulated by wide ranges of forage and concentrate factors. The final dataset comprised 527 diets in 116 studies. The diets were mainly based on grass silage or grass silage partly or completely replaced by whole-crop silages, hay or straw. The concentrate feeds consisted of cereal grains, fibrous by-products and protein supplements. Mixed model regression analysis with a random study effect was used to develop prediction equations for BWG and carcass traits. The best-fit models included linear and quadratic effects of metabolisable energy (ME) intake per metabolic BW (BW 0.75 ), linear effects of BW 0.75 , and dietary concentrations of NDF, fat and feed metabolisable protein (MP) as significant variables. Although diet variables had significant effects on BWG, their contribution to improve the model predictions compared with ME intake models was small. Feed MP rather than total MP was included in the final model, since it is less correlated to dietary ME concentration than total MP. None of the quadratic terms of feed variables was significant ( P > 0.10) when included in the final models. Further, additional feed variables (e.g. silage fermentation products, forage digestibility) did not have significant effects on BWG. For carcass traits, increased ME intake (ME/BW 0.75 ) improved both dressing proportion ( P < 0.01) and carcass conformation ( P < 0.001) and increased ( P < 0.001) carcass fat score. Increased dietary CP concentration had no significant ( P > 0.10) effect on dressing proportion or carcass conformation score, but it increased ( P < 0.01) carcass fat score. The current study demonstrated that ME intake per BW 0.75 was clearly the most important variable explaining the BWG response in growing cattle. The effect of increased ME supply displayed diminishing responses that could be associated with increased energy concentration of BWG, reduced diet metabolisability (proportion of ME of gross energy) and/or decreased efficiency of ME utilisation for growth with increased intake. Negative effects of increased dietary NDF concentration on BWG were smaller compared to responses that energy evaluation systems predict for energy retention. The present results showed only marginal effects of protein supply on BWG in growing cattle.

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“…Steen 1996a, Huuskonen et al 2008, Huuskonen 2009a), but there is evidence that finishing cattle may respond to supplementary protein in barleybased concentrates when the grass silage digestibility is moderate or low (Waterhouse et al 1985) and in situations where the animals have very high growth potential (Steen 1996b). In some studies, excess protein supplementation has increased carcass fat classification (Steen and Moore 1988, 1989, Steen 1996a) but Berge et al (1993) reported that steers which were given protein supplementation had leaner carcasses than steers not given protein supplementation. Meat tenderness is the most important property of beef meat for consumers and it has been studied widely (e.g.…”

Section: Key-wordsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of grass-red clover silage digestibility and concentrate protein concentration on performance, carcass value, eating quality and economy of finishing Hereford bulls reared in cold conditions

Manninen

Honkavaara

Jauhiainen

2008

AFSci

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The aim of the present experiment was to study the effects of (1) digestibility of grass-red clover silage (GCS) and (2) concentrate protein concentration on the performance, eating quality and economy of Hereford bulls during a six months pre-slaughter period, and reared in cold indoor facilities. Thirty-one bulls with an initial live weight (LW) of 289 kg were selected for a 2 × 2 factorial design experiment consisting of two primary growth GCSs harvested at different maturities (in vitro digestible organic matter (OM) in dry matter (DM), D value: Early-cut, E, 750 g kg -1 DM; Late-cut, L, 699 g kg -1 DM) and two concentrate crude protein concentrations (Medium, M, 170 g kg -1 DM; High, H, 210 g kg -1 DM). The concentrate comprised milled barley and pelleted commercial protein compound and was offered daily on average 3.2 kg DM, including 0.45 and 1.13 kg of rapeseed cake in M and H, respectively. Grass-red clover silage was offered ad libitum. The target cold carcass weight was 330 kg.The proportion of concentrate of the total daily DM intake averaged 0.337 during the entire experiment. Treatments had no effect on the daily intake of GCS, total intake of DM, DM intake kg -1 LW 0.75 and metabolizable energy averaging 6.0 and 9.4 kg DM, 97.4 g and 109.4 MJ, respectively. The digestibility of dietary OM and neutral detergent fibre was lower (p < 0.05, 0.733 vs. 0.769 and 0.625 vs. 0.665) on diet L than on diet E. The animals on diet E tended to consume daily on average 1.29 kg less (p < 0.10) DM kg -1 net weight gain than those on diet L. The time to achieve the target carcass weight was on average 18 days longer (p < 0.01) on diet L than on diet E. During the entire experiment the LW gain averaged 1795 and 1609 g d -1 (p < 0.01) on diets E and L, respectively. The concentrate protein concentration did not affect animal performance. Treatments had no significant effect on the kill-out proportion, EUROP carcass conformation and carcass fat classification which averaged 537 g kg -1 , 6.5 and 3.6, respectively. The eating quality of the tested loins was good. Treatments had only a minor effect on the yield of valuable cuts. It is concluded that the digestibility of silage is important since the early-cut silage improved the growth rate and shortened the finishing period of bulls significantly compared with those fed late-cut silage. The lower yield and, thus, higher unit cost of early-cut silage may, however, invalidate its superiority compared with the late-cut silage. There was no benefit from using concentrate of high protein concentration.

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A comparison of silage-based and dried forage-based diets for finishing beef cattle

Cited by 14 publications

References 9 publications

Evaluation of protein supplementation for growing cattle fed grass silage-based diets: a meta-analysis

Evaluation of protein supplementation for growing cattle fed grass silage-based diets: a meta-analysis

The development of a model to predict BW gain of growing cattle fed grass silage-based diets

Effects of grass-red clover silage digestibility and concentrate protein concentration on performance, carcass value, eating quality and economy of finishing Hereford bulls reared in cold conditions

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