Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the feeding value, meat nutrients and associative effects of a diet comprised of various corn silages inclusion with peanut vine or wheat straw in finishing beef cattle.
Methods: One hundred and eighty Simmental crossbred beef steers were blocked and assigned to the follow treatments: i) whole plant corn silage-based diet (control, WPCS), ii) mixed forages-based diet (replacing a portion of corn silage with wheat straw, WPCSW), iii) corn stalklage-based diet (CS), and iv) sweet corn stalklage-based diet (SCS). Each group consisted of 5 repeated pens with 9 steers/pen. The diets were formulated to be isonitrogenous and isoenergetic with same forage to concentrate ratio. Experimental diets were fed for 90 d.
Results: The effective ruminal degradability of dry matter and crude protein were highest for WPCS diet (p<0.05), for neutral detergent fiber was highest in SCS diet (p<0.05). The average daily gain was greater for cattle offered the WPCS diet, intermediate with WPCSW and SCS and lowest with CS (p<0.001). The concentration of non-esterified fatty acid in serum was higher for steers fed with CS and SCS diets than those offered WPCS and WPCSW steers (p<0.001). The treatments did not affect the general nutritional contents and amino acids composition of Longissimus dorsi of steers (p>0.05).
Conclusion: The corn silage-based diet exhibited the highest feeding value. The sweet corn stalklage and wheat straw as an alternative to corn silage offered to beef cattle had limited influence on feeding value and meat nutrients. However, the value of a corn stalklage-based diet was relatively poor. To sum up, when the high quality forage resources, such as corn silage, are in short supply, or the growth rate of beef cattle decreases in the later finishing period, the sweet stalklage and wheat straw could be used as a cheaper alternative in feedlot cattle diet without sharp reducing economic benefits.
Keywords: Beef Cattle; Beef Nutrients; Corn Silage; Growth Performance; Ruminal Degradability.