Performance of beef weaners on kikuyu silage supplemented with maize meal alone and in combination with protein of low degradability

Abstract

AbstractA series of experiments were designed to evaluate the effect of supplementation of maize meal, alone or in combination with protein of low degradability, on the growth and voluntary intake of beef weaners.Experiment 1: Maize meal (energy supplement) alone or in combination with fish meal (undegradable protein supplement) were evaluated as kikuyu silage supplements. Average daily weight changes of −312, 73, 300, and 635 g were obtained in weaners which were fed silage with no supplementation, 1.5 kg maize meal, 3 kg maize meal and 1.25 kg maize meal plus 0.250 kg fish meal each day, respectively.Experiment 2: The effect of increasing levels of protein of low degradability, in the form of fish meal, as a supplement to kikuyu silage was evaluated. Voluntary intake increased with fish meal supplementation but not the level of supplementation. Weaners given 250 or 400 g of fish meal per weaner per day had higher liveweight gain than those not supplemented or supplemented with 100 g.Experiment 3: Cottonseed meal, milled full‐fat soya beans and corn gluten meal were evaluated as replacements for fish meal. All diets were isocalorific and with the exception of the soya bean diet, which was lower in undegradable protein than the others, all diets had identical quantities of calculated undegradable protein. Neither voluntary intake nor liveweight gain were significantly affected by the replacement of fish meal with cottonseed or corn gluten meals.