Effects of substituting corn with steam-flaked sorghum on growth, digestion and blood metabolites in young cattle fed feedlot diets

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of substituting ground corn grain with steam-flaked sorghum (SFS) grain on growth performance, nutrient utilisation and blood metabolites in beef bulls. Fifty-six Simmental beef bulls averaging 12 months of age and 356.4 ± 2.6 kg of bodyweight were randomly assigned to four groups. The treatments were control, low-SFS, medium-SFS and high–SFS, with 0, 1/3, 2/3 and 3/3 SFS grain, respectively, substituting ground corn grain of diets(dry matter (DM) basis). Diets consisted of 50% corn silage and 50% concentrate (DM basis). The average daily gain and feed conversion rate improved quadratically with increasing the proportion of SFS grain. Ruminal pH and ammonia-nitrogen (N) concentration decreased quadratically, whereas ruminal total volatile fatty acid concentration increased quadratically. Ratio of acetate to propionate decreased quadratically (P = 0.027) due to the quadratic decrease in acetate production and the quadratic increase in propionate production. Digestibilities of DM, organic matter and crude protein increased quadratically, whereas that of neutral detergent fibre and acid detergent fibre decreased quadratically. The digestible N, retention N and the retention N to digestible N ratio improved quadratically. Inclusion of SFS grain in diets quadratically increased blood concentrations of glucose, total protein, albumin and triglyceride, but quadratically decreased the concentration of urea N. The results indicated that partly substituting ground corn grain with SFS grain could improve growth performance by improving ruminal fermentation and N utilisation; the optimum substitution rate was 2/3 (DM basis).

Skeletal growth in cattle in response to nutritional and hormonal manipulation

“…Insulin concentration was associated with plasma glucose concentration. The plasma glucose concentration in steers with low ME intake was lower than steers with high ME intake, although steers in all nutritional treatment groups had a normal range in glucose concentration in comparison with published data (3.7 -4.5 mmol/L) (Kang et al 2016;Wang et al 2016). The previous study reported that a higher insulin concentration was found in rodents fed ad libitum compared to their restricted cohorts (Solon-Biet et al 2015).…”

Substituting effects of winged bean tuber-modified starches for cassava chip in concentrate diets on rumen fermentation, nutrient utilization, and blood metabolites in Thai native beef cattle

“…Yahaghi et al [25] demonstrated that replacing barley with steam-treated sorghum grain in lamb diets could lead to improved ruminal fermentation and fiber digestibility. Similarly, Wang et al [20] found that substituting corn with steam-flaked sorghum in beef cattle diets resulted in enhanced NDF digestibility.…”

“…These processes cause the endosperm's structure to collapse, the starch granules' protein matrix to be disrupted, and the starch granules themselves to become gelatinized [4], as well as enhance the taste, odor, and fragrance of WBT, thereby improving palatability and feed intake [19]. Wang et al [20] reported that the steaming of sorghum in the diet expanded total intake, which may have been caused by the greater palatability of feed containing steam and enhanced ruminal fermentation by increased ruminal digestible starch (RDS). Furthermore, this processing impact makes starch a more accessible surface for both ruminal microbial and pancreatic enzymes, which is beneficial to microorganisms in their proliferation and may contribute to digestion in the rumen [21].…”

“…He et al [22] suggested that ruminants may benefit from a more effective source of energy supply if they were fed steam feedstuffs. It's probable that the steam-flaking process broke down the protein's disulfide bond and the starch's embedded structure, making the starch surface more palatable for ruminal microbial breakdown enzymes [20,21], hence enhancing the starch's ruminal degradability when fed at a replacement optimal level of 10 to 25% of concentrate, which improved the degradability of starch and ruminal fermentation in the rumen [7,21]. According to Qiao et al [31], steam-flaking cereal grains cause the concentration of C3 to rise while the ratio of C2 to C3 decreases.…”

“…This slower breakdown in the rumen could explain why the total VFA and C3 proportions were lower when WBTS was 20% and 30% of the diet, respectively, in this study. Wang et al [20] revealed that the incorporation of steam-flaked sorghum in lamb diets apparently decreased ruminal VFA concentrations when replacing a high steam-flaked (>30%) sorghum diet, and the ratio of C2 to C3 remained influenced. Similarly, Zhong et al [32] and Rafiee-Yarandi et al [35] showed a slight decrease in total VFA and proportion of ruminal C3.…”