Animal Science, Department of
Date of this Version
2019
Citation
2019 Nebraska Beef Cattle Report
Abstract
Cattle fed high grain diets with little to no roughage are typically at greater risk for acidosis and reduced dry matter intake and average daily gain. An individual feeding study was conducted to compare different inclusions of corn silage used as a roughage source on finishing performance and liver abscess rate. Treatments consisted of 3 inclusions of corn silage at 0, 7.5 and 15% of the diet DM and a control treatment with 7.5% alfalfa. There were no differences for live animal performance or carcass characteristics. There were also no differences in liver abscess incidence. Feeding corn silage at 15% gave similar performance responses compared to 7.5% alfalfa. These data suggest that roughage is not required in a finishing diet when feeding individual animals.
Included in
Large or Food Animal and Equine Medicine Commons, Meat Science Commons, Veterinary Preventive Medicine, Epidemiology, and Public Health Commons
Comments
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