Abstract
A three-year study evaluating the performance of yearling steers in a deep-bedded hoop barn has completed the second year. A 50 × 120 foot hoop barn was constructed at the ISU Armstrong Research Farm in the late fall of 2004. The comparison feedlot is an outside lot with shelter that includes a drive-through feed alley. Two groups of yearling steers were fed each year. The summer/fall groups were put on test in August and marketed in November. The winter/spring groups were put on test in December and marketed in two drafts in April/May. Overall the cattle performed similarly with similar carcass data for both housing systems. The information presented is for two years of a three-year study. The cattle had a lower mud score in the hoop barn, particularly for the winter/spring feeding periods. As expected the deep-bedded hoop system used more bedding than the semi-confinement lots. The bedded hoop barn required about 5 to 6 lb of cornstalk bedding per head per day that the steers were on feed.
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