Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5789978 | Livestock Science | 2015 | 6 Pages |
â¢Daily total DMI is higher in molasses based than maize meal based diets.â¢ME and CP intake are higher in molasses based than maize than maize meal based diets.â¢The FCR is higher in diets with hominy feed than rice polishing.â¢A diet combining molasses and hominy feed gave highest performance.â¢Hominy feed can successfully replace maize meal in finishing TSZ cattle in feedlot.
Forty five steers (2.5-3.0 years of age and 200±5 (SEM) kg body weight) were allotted randomly into five diets to assess the effects of finishing Tanzania Shorthorn Zebu (TSZ) cattle in feedlot using diets based on either molasses or maize grain combined with maize or rice by-products. The diets were hay and concentrate mixtures of hominy feed with molasses (HFMO), rice polishing with molasses (RPMO), hominy feed with maize meal (HFMM), rice polishing with maize meal (RPMM) and a control of maize meal with molasses (MMMO). All concentrate mixtures contained cotton seed cake, mineral mixture, salt and urea. Both hay and concentrate were fed ad libitum and with free access to drinking water for 90 days. Feed intake, body weights and carcass characteristics were recorded. The daily total dry matter intake (DMI, kg/day) was greater (P<0.05) in molasses based diets (7.64 for RPMO and 7.35 for HFMO) than in maize grain based diets (6.94, 6.73 and 6.19 for RPMM, MMMO and HFMM, respectively). Energy intake was highest (P<0.05) in HFMO (86 MJ/day) and lowest in RPMM (69 MJ/day). Crude protein intake was highest in HFMO (867 g/day) and lowest in RPMO (725 g/day). Feed conversion ratio (kg feed DMI/kg gain) was lower (P<0.05) for steers fed on HFMM (7.87) and HFMO (8.09) than those fed on MMMO (10.4), RPMM (11.0) and RPMO (11.5). Steers fed on HFMO had the highest (P<0.05) daily weight gain (919 g/day), total weight gain (83 kg), final live weight (283 kg), empty body weight (268 kg) and hot carcass weight (151 kg). The proportion of internal fat to empty body weight (2.7%) in steers fed on HFMO was higher (P<0.05) than those from other diets. Nevertheless, all carcasses showed relatively high fat cover (1.1-1.6 cm). It is concluded that agro-processing by products are good feed resources for finishing TSZ cattle in feedlots with formulations based on molasses being superior over those based on maize meal, and hominy feed being superior over rice polishing. A combination of molasses and hominy feed (HFMO) could be used successfully as an alternative to maize meal in finishing TSZ cattle in feedlot.