Abstract
AbstractThe objectives of this study were (1) to estimate herbage intake in spring and late summer in Danish Friesian steers during their first grazing season on ryegrass/white clover pasture and (2) to investigate the effect of different winter feeding levels on subsequent herbage intake in Danish Friesian steers weighing more than 450 kg. In experiment 1, herbage intake was estimated in 18 to 20 steers with a mean live weight of 210 kg (s.e. 8•0 kg) and 312 (s.e. 8•9) kg in May/June and August respectively. In experiment 2, 22 steers were allocated to two feeding treatments in their second winter with expected daily live-weight gain of 500 g (LOW) and 800 g (HIGH). The steers weighed 440 (s.e. 15•8) kg (LOW) and 531 (s.e. 9•2) kg (HIGH) at the time of turn-out on to a ryegrass/white clover pasture. Herbage intakes were estimated in June using, as in experiment 1, the alkane bolus technique. Faeces and herbage samples were analysed for alkanes to estimate herbage intake, digestibility and botanical composition of intake. The weight gains (kg/day) were 1•156 (s.e. 0•69) and 1•054 (s.e. 0•87) in May/June and August respectively (experiment 1) and 1•592 (s.e. 0•137) and 1•273 (s.e. 0•116) in June in LOW and HIGH respectively (experiment 2). Daily herbage intake (kg dry matter (DM) per steer) estimated by alkanes C32 /C33 were 5•2 (s.e. 0•26), 9•4 (s.e. 0•28) in May/June and August (experiment 1) (P < 0•001) and 12•0 (s.e. 0•50) and 10•4 (s.e. 0•41) in LOW and HIGH (experiment 2) (P < 0•05) respectively. The diet of steers contained primarily ryegrass leaves (0•70 to 0•90) and ryegrass stems (0•10 to 0•30) and clover (0 to 0•02 and 0•18 in experiment 1 and experiment 2 respectively). It was concluded that (1) steers during their first grazing season can maintain herbage intake per kg live weight during the grazing season from May to August, and (2) steers weighing more than 450 kg are able to increase herbage intake along with compensatory growth.
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