PROPORTIONS OF MAJOR BOVINE TISSUES AS INFLUENCED BY RATIONS BASED ON BARLEY OR OATS

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to study the effect of oats and barley in high-grain rations on performance of calves and on totals and proportions of muscle, bone and fat in the carcasses. Each experimental diet was fed to a group of four Jersey bull calves. There was no significant difference between the two groups of calves in average daily liveweight gain, and very little difference in feed conversion efficiency and daily feed consumption.On the basis of total dissection of one-half of each carcass, calves fed barley contained practically the same amount of lean, similar proportions of bone and more fat (23.6% vs. 14.9%) compared with those fed oats. Barley-fed animals consumed 26.3% more digestible energy over maintenance requirements than oats-fed animals. This resulted in 58.4% more dissectable fat in the carcasses of barley-fed animals.