Animal Science, Department of
Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports
Date of this Version
2023
Citation
2023 Nebraska Beef Cattle Report
UNL Beef, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
An experiment evaluated the forage value of crested wheatgrass (CWG) harvested throughout the grazing season near Sidney, Nebraska over a two-year period (2019-2020). The purpose of the evaluation was to determine forage quality and rumen undegradable protein (RUP) content to help producers with supplementation decisions for cattle grazing monoculture CWG pastures. In vitro dry matter disappearance quadratically decreased from 54% in May to 37% in September of 2019, with no changes throughout 2020, averaging 43%. In both years, crude protein (CP) decreased throughout the growing season while rumen undegradable protein (RUP) increased (as % CP). Digestible RUP was less than 0.50% of DM for all samples collected. Producers with cattle grazing CWG monoculture pastures could use these data to assist with supplementation decisions.
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