PERFORMANCE OF BEEF STEERS FED GRASS SILAGE WITH OR WITHOUT SUPPLEMENTS OF SOYBEAN MEAL, FISH MEAL AND BARLEY

Abstract

Forty crossbred beef steers were used in a 112-d experiment to study the effect of fish meal (FM, 300 g d−1), soybean meal (SBM, 320 g d−1), barley (B, 2 kg d−1) and B plus FM (2 kg + 300 g d−1) supplementation of grass silage on the performance of growing cattle. The growth rate of steers fed silage was 0.83 kg d−1 and this was increased by 0.15, 0.12, 0.27 and 0.36 kg d−1 by supplements of FM, SBM, B and B + FM. Silage dry matter (DM) intake averaged 2.13% of body weight. Protein supplementation had no effect on silage intake. B and B + FM supplementation increased total DM intake (P < 0.01), but decreased silage consumption by 14% (P < 0.05). Key words: Cattle, grass silage, soybean meal, barley, growth, fish meal