THE EFFECT OF DIET AND FREQUENCY OF WATERING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF GROWING CATTLE GIVEN FOOD AT MAINTENANCE

摘要

An 18-week experiment investigated the effects of type of diet and frequency of watering on the performance of growing cattle given food at maintenance (metabolizable energy (ME) allowance (MJ) = 8.3 + 0.091 M where M = live weight of the animal). Three diets with 20:80 (low, L), 50:50 (medium, M) and 80:20 (high, H) roughage to concentrate ratios (10.2, 7.8 and 5.4 MJME per kg dry matter) were used in combination with free access to water for 2.5 h once daily or once every 3rd day. A completely randomized-block design with a 3 (diets) X 2 (watering frequencies) factorial arrangement of treatments was used. Five animals wee allocated per treatment (average weight 245 (s.d. 21.6) kg).