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Abstract

Sixty-three younger (Exp. 1, live weight (LW) 119 kg) and 48 older (Exp. 2, LW 414 kg) pen-housed dairy steers were used in twelve-week long trials to investigate effects of maturity stage of whole-crop barley silages (WCBS) on animal performance. Precision-chopped WCBS harvested at heading (H), milk- (M) and dough stage (D) of maturity were fed ad libitum and supplemented with concentrates at 0.6-1 kg head-1 d-1. Feed intake and LW were registered continuously and data were analysed by ANOVA using GLM. Silage DM intake was highest for D in both experiment; 20.5a vs. 19.1b and 17.7c g kg-1 LW d-1 in Exp. 1 and 20.2a vs. 17.5b and 17.1b g kg-1 LW d-1 in Exp. 2 for D, M and H silages, respectively (P<0.001). Feed conversion, expressed as kg silage DM intake kg-1 LW gain, was lowest for H in Exp. 1; 3.7b vs. 4.4a and 4.3a kg kg-1 and lower than M in Exp. 2; 8.6b vs. 11.8a and 10.7ab kg kg-1 for H, M and D silages, respectively (P<0.05). The results indicate that WCBS should be harvested at heading or dough stage for good animal performance

Keywords

whole-crop cereal silage; dairy steers; feed intake

Published in

Grassland Science in Europe
2008, volume: 13, pages: 852-854
Title: Biodiversity and Animal Feed : Future Challenges for Grassland Production
Publisher: Organising Committee of the 22nd General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Conference

The 22nd General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science
Veterinary Science

Publication identifier

  • ISBN: 978-91-85911-47-9

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/19172