FEEDING VALUE OF FORAGE AS FED TO STEERS AND ESTIMATED BY IN VITRO DIGESTION

Abstract

The digestibility and intake of 23 hays and three silages were determined in two experiments with Hereford steers averaging 215 kg at the start of the test. Each forage was fed in a chopped (4 to 6 cm) form as the sole diet to two steers for 56 days. Voluntary intake and body weight gain during the fourth through the seventh week were used as measures of animal performance. Digestibility was determined by collecting all the feces during the eighth week, allowing for a three-day lag between intake and excretion. The forages included grass, legume and cereal hays, and cereal and legume cereal silages produced under a wide range of conditions. The concentration of in vitro digestible organic matter (DOM) in the forage was highly correlated with gain (r = 0.57 and 0.86) and intake of digestible energy (DE) (r = 0.62 and 0.89). The voluntary intake by the steers was comparable with that by sheep in earlier experiments at two other locations, when the intake was based on metabolic body size, and on similar in vitro DOM or in vivo DE concentrations in the forage. Differences in intake between experiments followed the same pattern as feed allowance in excess of intake, but the effect of in vitro DOM or in vivo DE content on intake was apparently the same in each experiment. This supported the theory that regressions of DE intake by sheep on in vitro DOM content of forage will serve as a measure of the feeding value, providing that appropriate experimental conditions are maintained.