Dairy Beef Production from Mixtures of Sugarcane Bagasse and Concentrates

Abstract

Sixteen Holstein-Friesian and Brown Swiss male calves, ranging in age from 212 to 278 days and in weight from 162 to 339 pounds, were fed to slaughter weights of approximately 1,000 pounds on four mixtures of sugarcane bagasse and concentrates. All four mixtures were fed ad libitum as the sole diet to two pairs of animals in two separate pens. The diets contained two levels of bagasse (20 and 30 percent) and two levels of crude protein (approximately 12.5 and 16 percent), thus constituting a 2X2 factorial design. The following respective average responses were observed on diets A (low bagasse-low protein), B (low bagasse-high protein), C (high bagasse-low protein), and D (high bagasse-high protein): Daily liveweight gain, 2.46, 2.61, 2.54, and 2.33 pounds; daily feed consumption, 19.3, 19.0, 20.5, and 19.7 pounds; and feed consumed per pound of gain, 7.84, 7.28, 8.07, and 8.45 pounds. None of these differences among treatments were significant. The feed conversion ratios were in the range of 4.5 to 5.5 during the first month and thereafter increased steadily to values approaching and/or above 10.0. During the 24-hour pre-slaughter shrink the animals fed the high-bagasse diets lost proportionately more liveweight than the animals fed the lowbagasse rations (5.13 and 5.09 vs. 3.10 and 3.35 percent). The same result was found as to weight lost by the carcass upon chilling (1.98 and 1.55 vs. 1.32 and 1.33 percent). The diets had no significant effects on chilled carcass dressing percentages, the averages being 54.3, 54.8, 52.6, and 53.4 for A through D, respectively. Neither were there any significant differences among treatments in the percentages of chilled carcass weight represented by the various wholesale cuts nor in the Wamer-Bratzler shear force-scores of meat samples from the rib or round. It is concluded that all four formulas gave excellent and comparable results in growth response of the animals and their carcass yields. The higher level of protein was not significantly beneficial, nor the higher level of bagasse significantly detrimental.