Impact of a fumaric acid and palm oil additive on beef cattle performance and carcass characteristics in diets containing increasing concentrations of corn silage1

Abstract

A feedlot study was conducted comparing a natural feed additive at varying corn silage (CS) inclusions on receiving and finishing cattle performance. The study utilized 480 crossbred steers (initial shrunk body weight [BW] = 296 kg; SD = 24.1 kg) in 48 pens with 10 steers/pen and 8 pens per treatment. Treatments were designed as a 2 × 3 factorial with 3 inclusions of CS (14%, 47%, 80%; dry matter [DM] basis) with or without (+, −) the inclusion of a feed additive containing fumaric acid and palm oil (FAPO). All treatment diets contained 16% modified distillers grains plus solubles and 4% supplement with dry-rolled corn replacing CS on a DM basis. All steers were fed the 80 CS diet and adapted to 47% and 14% CS over a 10- and 24-d period, respectively. Cattle fed 80 CS were fed for 238 days, 47 CS for 195 days, and 14% CS were fed for 168 days to a common backfat of 1.28 cm (P ≥ 0.59). There were no interactions for CS inclusion and the inclusion of FAPO on final body weight (FBW), DMI, ADG, G:F, hot carcass weight (HCW), LM area, marbling, or calculated yield grade (CYG; P ≥ 0.15). There was no significant difference for FBW, DMI, ADG, G:F, HCW, marbling, or CYG for cattle fed with or without FAPO (P ≥ 0.13). However, there was a quadratic response for FBW, ADG, G:F, HCW, marbling, and CYG with increased inclusion of CS (P ≤ 0.04). Inclusion of FAPO had no effect on performance. Feeding CS at greater inclusions decreased daily gain and feed efficiency but increased FBW when fed to an equal fat endpoint. CS gave greater returns ($/animal) when fed at 80% of diet DM. Feeding greater amounts of CS can be an economical way to finish cattle. In this study, FAPO did not affect animal performance, carcass characteristics, or economic return.

Feed additives for beef cattle

“…These results may increase expectation regarding the use of EO and FO in beef cattle nutrition. In contrast, other studies have shown no effect on rumen fermentation parameters, growth performance, carcass traits or FE of cattle fed high, medium and low concentrate diets containing different commercial blends of EO and FO at different dosages (Beauchemin et al, 2006;Silva et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2020;Wilson et al, 2020).…”

Nutrient Requirements of Zebu and Crossbred Cattle - BR-CORTE

“…These results may increase expectation regarding the use of EO and FO in beef cattle nutrition. In contrast, other studies have shown no effect on rumen fermentation parameters, growth performance, carcass traits or FE of cattle fed high, medium and low concentrate diets containing different commercial blends of EO and FO at different dosages (Beauchemin et al, 2006;Silva et al, 2019;Melo et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020;Wilson et al, 2020).…”

Exigências Nutricionais de Zebuínos Puros e Cruzados - BR-CORTE

“…Esses resultados podem criar expectativas quanto ao uso de OE e OF na nutrição de bovinos de corte. Em contraste, outros estudos não mostraram efeito sobre os parâmetros de fermentação ruminal, desempenho produtivo, características de carcaça ou EA de bovinos alimentados com dietas de alto, médio e baixo concentrado contendo diferentes misturas comerciais de OE e OF em diferentes dosagens (Beauchemin et al, 2006;Wang et al, 2020;Wilson et al, 2020).…”