Influence of dietary barley silage level on young Brown cattle performance

摘要

The effect of feeding barley silage at three levels, next to adequate compound feeds, on Brown steer performance (feed intake, gain, feed conversion ratio) was assessed for 80 days in an experiment on three groups of 9 steers each (average initial weight 360 kg). The groups differed by the barley silage to compound feed ratio: 50:50 for group 1, 70:30 for group 2 and 30:70 for group 3 (on a dry matter basis). The structure of corn + sunflower meal-based compound feed s was adapted to the nutrient supply of the barley silage and to its dietary level. The highest feed intake was observed in the group with unrestricted access to compound feeds, while the lowest feed intake was o served in the group with free access to barley silage, which resulted in a higher weight gain for group 3 (1237.5 g/day) compared to 1134.7 and 1042.2 g/day in groups 1 and 2, respectively (not significant differences, P=0.077). Group 2 displayed the best feed conversion ratio.