Evaluation of different dietary supplements for cattle consuming ryegrass baleage

• Main Author: Durst, Lanna Victoria
• Other Authors: Dr. Stephanie Ward
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: MSSTATE 2014
• Subjects: Animal and Dairy Sciences
• Online Access: http://sun.library.msstate.edu/ETD-db/theses/available/etd-07022014-144448/

<p>The objectives of this study were to evaluate nutrient digestibility and CP retention of steers fed ryegrass baleage supplemented with hay or soybean hull pellets. Crossbred steers (n=12, BW 247 plus or minus 20.8 kg) were halter broken, and placed into individual metabolism crates for a total of 10 days. All 12 steers had ad libitum access to ryegrass baleage and were allotted to 3 supplements 1) no supplement; 2) soybean hull pellets; 3) hay, with 4 steers per treatment group. Supplements were fed at 0.25% of steer body weight. Sample collections were for 7 days following a 3 day adaptation to crates. Results collected indicated there was no effect of supplementing a fiber source to cattle consuming ryegrass baleage on nutrient digestibility or CP retention. This may be attributed to maturity of ryegrass at harvest.</p>