Effect of breed, gender, housing system and dietary crude protein content on performance of finishing beef cattle fed maize-silage-based diets

Juniper, D. T., Bryant, M. J., Beever, D. E. and Fisher, A. V. (2007) Effect of breed, gender, housing system and dietary crude protein content on performance of finishing beef cattle fed maize-silage-based diets. Animal, 1 (5). pp. 771-779. ISSN 1751-7311 doi: 10.1017/s175173110770352x

Abstract/Summary

Maize silage-based diets with three dietary crude protein (CP) supplements were offered to 96 finishing cattle of contrasting breed (Holstein Friesian (HF) v. Simmental x HF (SHF)) and gender (bull v. steer) housed in two types of feeding system (group fed v. individually fed). The three protein supplements differed either in CP or protein degradability (degradable (LUDP) v. rumen undegradable (HUDP)) and provided CP concentrations of 142 (Con), 175 (LUDP) and 179 (HUDP) g/kg dry matter (DM) respectively, with ratios of degradable to undegradable of 3.0, 1.4 and 0.9:1 for diets Con, LOP and HUDP respectively. DM intakes were marginally higher (P = 0. 102) for LOP when compared with Con and HOP Rates of daily live-weight gain (DLWG) were higher (P = 0.005) in LUDP and HOP when compared with Con. HF had higher DM intakes than SHF although this did not result in any improvement in HF DLWG. Bulls had significantly better DM intakes, DLWG and feed conversion efficiency than steers. Conformation scores were better in SHF than HF (P < 0.001) and fat scores lower in bulls than steers (p < 0.001). There was a number of first order interactions established between dietary treatment, breed, gender and housing system with respect to rates of gain and carcass fat scores.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/8746
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development
Uncontrolled Keywords	beef cattle, breed, crude protein, maize silage, HOLSTEIN HEIFERS, FEED-EFFICIENCY, YOUNG CATTLE, GAIN, GROWTH, RUMEN, UREA
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