A comparison of long and shredded cereal straw for beef cattle

1983 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. F. Mira ◽  
M. Kay ◽  
E. A. Hunter

ABSTRACTThirty Hereford × Friesian steers initially weighing 320 kg were used in two experiments, to compare the effects of mechanical processing of barley straw and the amount of rolled barley offered on intake and live-weight gain. The straw was offered ad libitum either in the long form or shredded through a 40 mm screen and supplemented with 20, 35 and 50 g barley DM per kgW"75 per day (L, M and H respectively). A solution providing 12 g urea per kg straw dry matter (DM) was sprayed onto the straw and all the animals were offered daily 480 g of soya bean meal with minerals and vitamins. In the first experiment, which had a change-over design, the animals were weighed at the beginning and the end of each period. The daily consumption of shredded straw (kg DM) was L 3·38, M 3·29 and H 3·00 and of long straw L 3·94, M 4·02 and H 3·56 (s.e. of difference, 0·29). There were significant differences in straw intake between steers offered the long and the shredded straw (P < 0·001) but no differences in intake when different amounts of barley were offered within the same physical form of straw. The mean daily live-weight gains for treatments L, M and H respectively were 0·25, 0·66 and 0·80 kg for steers given shredded straw and 0·32, 0·62 and 0·87 kg (s.e. of difference, 0·1) for those offered long straw. At the end of the first experiment the same animals were kept for a further 10 weeks on the same straw treatment but only treatments L and H were continued, the steers from treatment M being distributed between L and H. The straw intakes and live-weight gains were in agreement with those observed in the first experiment

Author(s):  
C. Castrillo ◽  
J. Balcells ◽  
J.A. Guada ◽  
M. Fondevilla

There is evidence that in growing lambs, net nitrogen requirements are affected by breed, sex, weight and level of feeding but little is known about the effect of dietary concentration. The purpose of the present experiment was to examine the effect of feeding straw diluted diets on nitrogen retention in Rasa Aragonesa lambs from weaning to slaughter.Eight male lambs, 40-45 days old and 12.3 ± 0.47 kg live weight, were allocated to one of two pelleted diets containing 6 (C) or 23 (D) percent of barley straw and barley, soya bean meal and fish meal to give a crude protein content of 193 (C) and 186 (D) g/ kg dry matter. Both diets were fed ad libitum and nitrogen balances were carried out at 14, 21 and 29 kg live weight. For diet C at the last weight only the balance of two lambs was recorded.The results are shown in table 1. Although the digestible organic matter (DOM) content was higher (P ≤ 0.005) for diet C (690 g/kg DM) than for diet D (606 g/kg DM), DOM intake was not significantly affected by dietary dilution. Nitrogen retention was higher at the lowest live weight for both diets and decreased at each live weight with dietary dilution (P ≤ 0.005). No significant period x diet interaction was found.


1977 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-218
Author(s):  
M. J. Owers ◽  
H. Swan ◽  
B. Wilton

SUMMARYMixtures (1: 1) of whole-crop dried wheat or barley, with peas or beans as a nitrogen supplement, were fed ad libitum to four groups of 16 6-mo-old male castrate sheep for a period of 42 days in 1971. The mean dry-matter consumptions (kg/day) and live-weight gains (g/day) were: wheat+peas 1·69, 264; wheat+beans 2·05, 288; barley+peas 1·80, 282; and barley+beans 1·81, 229. This experiment was repeated in 1972. The differences between treatments were non-significant.Dried pelleted whole-crop maize was fed ad libitum to British Friesian steers for 90 days, in conjunction with molasses and one of three protein sources, soya bean meal, urea or whole crop beans. The dry-matter intakes (kg/day) and live-weight gains (kg) were: maize+soya 9·68, 1·26; maize+urea 9·38, 10·4; and maize+beans 9·72, 1·15.Dried maize in conjunction with urea, whole crop beans and dried grass to supply crude protein levels between 9 and 11% was fed to 48 Hereford × British Friesian steers. The dry-matter intakes (kg/day) and live-weight gains (kg/day) were: whole crop maize, 8·35, 0·87; whole crop maize+urea, 9·55, 1·0; whole crop maize+whole crop beans, 7·44, 0·70; whole crop maize+dried grass, 8·94, 1·15; whole crop maize+rolled barley, 9·30, 1·23; and dried grass + rolled barley, 9·24, 1·21. Although there was no significant difference in live-weight gain between the treatments, two levels of performance were apparent.


1968 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Swan ◽  
G. E. Lamming

Thirty-two yearling Friesian steers were used in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment. The treatment variables were source of supplementary nitrogen and physical form of the diet. The diets contained 30% ground barley straw, ground maize, a nitrogen supplement, and minerals and vitamins. Urea was compared with soya bean meal as the nitrogen supplement and both diets were given as cubes or meal. There was no significant difference between treatments in daily live-weight gain, feed intake or commercial carcass acceptability.Digestibility trials with wethers showed the apparent digestibility of nitrogen and dry matter of the diet containing urea to be significantly lower than that of the diet containing soya bean meal (nitrogen 72·8 ν. 76·3, P < 0·001; dry matter 70·2 ν. 75·3, P < 0·01). The results are discussed in relation to the digestibility of the diets used, the source of supplementary nitrogen and the physical form of the diet.


1988 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isobel C. Vincent ◽  
H. Ll. Williams ◽  
R. Hill

ABSTRACTThree types of high glucosinolate British rapeseed meal (RSM) — extracted, expeller and extruded — were incorporated in ewe diets at 200 g/kg; soya-bean meal (SBM) at 165 g/kg replaced RSM in a control diet. Eighty housed Suffolk-Mule ewes were divided into four equal groups and given one of four diets, A (control SBM), B (extracted RSM), C (expeller RSM) or D (extruded RSM) for one reproductive cycle. Diets A and B were compared for a second season. The ewes were given a maximum of 2·5 kg diet per day during lactation. Barley straw was available ad libitum. The ewes were mated in November and December. Lambs were weaned at 42 days of age; they were given creep food similar in composition to their dams' lactation diets.There were no dietary effects on ewes in overall health, live weight, oestrous activity, conception, number of lambs born alive or lamb birth weights. A mean of 1·6 lambs were weaned per ewe mated and 58% of these were twins, in year 1. In year 2, 1·8 lambs were reared and 79% were twins. The mean milk yield over the first 4 weeks of lactation was 3·2 1 and there were no significant dietary effects. Fat concentration in milk was very variable, but in general was slightly depressed by the RSM diets, significantly so at three sampling dates. Protein concentration was consistently lower in milk from RSM than SBM groups, significantly lower at four of the weekly samplings. Thiocyanate levels in plasma and milk were related to glucosinolate intake, but were not associated with any detrimental effects. At all sampling dates, values for RSM groups were significantly greater than for SBM ewes. Plasma thyroxine values were similar regardless of diet


1987 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Deresz ◽  
C. M. Jaume ◽  
M. R. de Carvalho ◽  
C. A. González

ABSTRACTTwenty-six pregnant Holstein-Friesian × zebu heifers, arranged in pairs according to age, body weight, expected calving date and amount of zebu breeding, were allocated at random to two nutritional regimens during the last 12 weeks before calving. If was planned that the animals in treatment A should calve at a pre-calving live weight of 480 kg and those in treatment B should calve at 380 kg. The diet consisted of maize silage or elephant grass silage, soya-bean meal and minerals. During the first 21 days of the post-partum period both groups were given 6 kg concentrate per head daily. After this period, the feeding level was adjusted every 14 days according to the current milk yield. The mean total milk yields were 2132 kg and 1283 kg (P < 0·05) and the lengths of lactation were 239 days and 156 days (P < 0·01) for cows in treatments A and B, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between treatments in the intervals from calving to first heat or calving to conception.


1970 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Swan ◽  
G. E. Lamming

SUMMARY1. Three groups, each of eight steers, were fed on pelleted diets containing 30, 50 or 70% ground barley straw, maize and soya bean meal. On an air-dry basis the diets contained 12% crude protein.2. Daily live-weight gain was 1·29, 1·19 and 1·02 kg/day for the 30, 50 and 70% straw diets respectively, and was negatively related to the percentage of crude fibre in the dry matter (r = −0·61, P < 0·05).3. The apparent digestibility of dry matter, determined in sheep at the maintenance level of feeding was negatively related to percentage crude fibre in the dry matter (r = −0·91, P < 0·001).4. All animals were killed at approximately the same live weight, which was reached on average in 140,153 and 163 days by the 30, 50 and 70% groups, respectively.5. The differences in mean carcass weight between treatments were significant (P < 0·05). Killing-out percentage was significantly reduced (P < 0·05) as the proportion of ground barley straw in the diet was increased from 30 to 70%.6. The proportion of straw in the diet had no direct effect on the composition of carcass gain.7. The results are discussed in relation to the intake of digestible energy.


1993 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-158
Author(s):  
R. B. Ogle ◽  
K. Annér

The effect on sow reproductive performance of including 100 g white-flowered peas (Pisum sativum hortense, cv. Vreta and Lotta) per kg, replacing barley, wheat and soya-bean meal in gestation and lactation diets, was studied over four parities using 24 pairs of crossbred littermate sows. Net sow weight gains and changes in backfat thickness over the complete reproductive cycle were similar for both treatments. Piglet live-weight gains and mean litter size at birth were not influenced by treatment, although litter size at weaning was 0·5 pigs higher (P > 0·05) for the control sows, due to higher post-natal mortality rate in the litters from the sows given the pea diets. It can be concluded that inclusion of white-flowered peas at a rate of 100 g/kg had no adverse effect on reproductive performance, with the exception of slightly higher post-natal piglet mortality.


1997 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. Pérez ◽  
J. Balcells ◽  
J. A. Guada ◽  
C. Castrillo

AbstractFour ewes fitted with ruminal and duodenalT-piece cannulas were given fourdietsin a 4 × 4 factorial design. Diets consisted of 700 (HF) or 400 (LF) g/day of ammonia-treated barley straw supplemented respectively with 150 or 600 g/day of concentrate made up with barley plus either soya-bean meal (SBM) or fishmeal (FM) as the protein source, offered at 2-h intervals. Duodenal flowsof digestawere estimated by the dual-phasetechniqueusing CoEDTAand Yb-acetate as markers and (15NH4)2SO4 was infusedinto the rumento label microbial N. Bacteria were isolated from the liquid (LAB) or solid (SAB) rumendigesta. Purinebases (PB) were isolated by precipitationin an acid solution of AgN03, and microbial contribution either to the duodenalnitrogen(N) or PB were determinedby 15N measurements induodenaldigesta and bacteria.Simultaneously, therumen degradation of Nand PB contained in SBM and FM was studiedby incubating supplements in polyesterbags in the rumen.PBcontent (mmol/g dry matter)and guanine: adenine(G/A) ratio of barley strawwas 2·89 and 5·23; barley grain,7·91 and 111;SBM, 18·8 and 1·26; and FM, 58·9 and 6·96, respectively. Duodenal flow ofPB(mmol/day)was significantly higher than PB intake on all diets and G/A ratio showed a meanvalue of 0·97, similarto the ratios determined in SAB(0·80) and LAB (1·04) and muchlower than diets(1·31 to 4·32). Microbial contribution to duodenal Nflow ranged from43·3% to 61·0%, beinghigherin SBM(59·0%)thanin FM(46·7%)diets. However, microbial contribution to duodenal PB was not affected by the experimentaltreatment, accounting for proportionately 0·77 of total PB at the duodenum. Rumen degradability of PB was much higher than that of total N and in both cases degradability was higher in SBM than FM. Direct measurements of non-microbialN were significantly higher than values determined by the polyester-bagmeasurements. However, once corrected forthe endogenousN (52 mgN per kg live weight)contribution, results show edan acceptable agreement. Duodenal flow of PB non-attributable to microbes (unlabelled PB) showed a mean value of 3·25 mmol/daywithouta significanteffect of dietary treatment. However, undegradablePBsupply determinedfor0·02, 0·05 and 0·08 per h fractional out flow rates were proportionately lower than 0·025 with SBM and 0·100 with FM diets of the estimated duodenalPB flow. Despite the magnitudeof the unlabelledduodenalPB, the close agreement between G/A ratios in duodenaldigesta and bacteria suggests thatthe contribution of dietary PB to the duodenalflow was low and seemsto confirm the reliability of values obtained from polyester-bag measurements.


1986 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Levy ◽  
Z. Holzer ◽  
V. Samuel ◽  
I. Bruckental

ABSTRACTTwo feeding trails were made and in both all the diets given contained about 11 MJ metabolizable energy (ME) per kg dry matter (DM).In trial 1, diets containing three concentrations of crude protein (CP) were given to a total of 84 Friesian bulls in each of three stages of growth. They were, in stage 1 (150 to 250 kg live weight) 130, 145 and 160 g CP per kg dietary DM; in stage 2 (250 to 350 kg live weight) 110, 130 and 145 g CP per kg dietary DM; in stage 3 (350 kg to slaughter) 95, 110 and 130 g CP per kg dietary DM. In stages 2 and 3, the source of supplementary nitrogen at each CP concentration was either soya-bean meal or non-protein nitrogen (NPN) giving six combinations of concentration and source of dietary CP. Live-weight gains in stage 1 were 1·52, 1·60 and 1·58 kg/day respectively (P > 0·05). In the stages involving both concentrations and source of nitrogen (soya-bean meal in parentheses), the mean daily live-weight gains were (1·40), 1·38, (1·32), 1·34 (1·34) and 1·31 kg for stage 2 (F > 0·05) and (1·14), 1·14, (1.24), 1·16, (1·06) and 1·08 kg for stage 3 (P < 0·05), for the diets of 130, 145 and 160 g CP per kg diet respectively.Trial 2 consisted of six stages of growth, the first five of 45 days duration and the sixth of varying length up to a predicted slaughter weight, and seven dietary treatments. Treatment 1 was a negative control (NC) with a dietary CP concentration of 90 g/kg DM. For the other six treatments two concentrations of dietary CP were given; 120 g/kg and 140 g/kg in stages 1 and 2 and 100 g/kg or 120 g/kg in stages 3 to 6. Dietary CP concentration was increased by the addition of NPN, fish meal or soya-bean meal. A total of 98 Friesian bulls were used with an initial average live weight of 185 kg. Daily gain of the NC group in the six stages of the trial was 0·86, 0·97, 101, 1·13, 1·07 and 1·00 kg for stages 1 to 6 respectively. From the results it was concluded that feeding NPN is not efficient at live weights lower than 250 kg and that there is no advantage to feeding fish meal over soya-bean meal in diets of medium energy concentration at live weights heavier than 250 kg.


1985 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Smith ◽  
J. W. Siviter ◽  
R. J. Merry

SummarySpring-barley straw or maize silage were the major components in mixed diets of compound and forage fed to yearling dairy heifers. With straw, rolled barley was fed either alone or with fishmeal, soya-bean meal, protected soya-bean meal, whey + urea or Ewoplua (a product made from whey and rich in lactosyl urea). With maize silage the rolled barley was fed either alone or with fishmeal, whey + urea or Ewoplus.When straw was included in the diet fishmeal and protected soya-bean meal increased live-weight gain, and all the supplements increased nitrogen retention. When maize silage was fed, only fishmeal increased live-weight gain although all the supplements increased digestibility. Concentrations of rumen NH3-N were increased by all the supplements, when fed with straw, and also by maize silage when fed without an N supplement or with fishmeal. Small changes were noted in total and molar proportions of VFA.Calculated ME intakes suggested a more efficient use of energy for growth from maize silage than from straw, except when the straw diet was supplemented with fishmeal.


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