Feed Intake of Young Double-Muscled Bulls Fed on Grass and Supplemented with Sugar-Beet Pulp

Abstract

Daily dry matter intake in young growing double-muscled bulls, fed indoors on grass, was estimated based on forty-four intake data from 28 animals, ageing at least five months and weighing up to 400kg live weight. Intake was measured during five consecutive days using one of eighteen cuts of grass. Fresh meadow grass (mainly Lolium perenne ) was fed ad libitum and twokg dried sugar-beet pulp was offered per animal and per day. Animal live weight averaged 278 ± 82kg and mean total daily dry matter intake amounted to 5.05 ± 1.59kg or 73.6 ± 13.7g perkg metabolic weight, while pulp dry matter intake amounted to 1.49 ± 0.50kg per day. Regression analysis showed that animal as well as feed characteristics could explain up to approximately 90% of the variation in daily dry matter intake. The supplementation resulted in an extra daily dry matter intake of 0.68g perg pulp dry matter. Intake of double-muscled animals was considerably lower than previously reported for non-double-muscled cattle. An extra supplementation of young grazing double-muscled animals could be advised from these findings, while extra protein should also be considered.