A 2-year winter grazing and feedlot finishing trial (Exp 1) and subsequent in-situ nutrient
disappearance study (Exp 2) were conducted to evaluate the effects of swath grazing forage
barley (Hordeum vulgare, cv. Ranger) or foxtail millet (Setaria italica, cv. Golden German)
compared to grass-legume hay fed in drylot on calf performance. In trial1 in each of 2 years, 120
spring born Angus calves (60 steers, 60 heifers) were fall weaned, stratified by weight, allocated
into 20-head groups then assigned randomly to one of the three replicated (n=2) backgrounding
(BG) systems. Backgrounding systems were (i) swath graze barley (BR); (ii) swath graze millet
(ML); and (iii) bunk fed ground hay drylot (DL). Swath grazed calves were limit fed in 8 ha
paddocks with 3 d grazing periods, using electric fencing for 96 d each year. All groups received
a pelleted supplement at 0.62% BW. Calves were weighed at start, every 21 d and end of
background period. Following the BG period, calves were placed in feedlot, separated by sex and
BG treatment and fed a similar finishing ration and harvested at a targeted endpoint of 12 mm
back fat. Forage samples collected every 21 d were analyzed for DM, CP and digestible energy
(DE) and change in nutritive quality over the grazing period. DE content was greatest (P<0.05)
for BR (2.6 Mcal/kg) and least for DL hay (2.2 Mcal/kg). Quality of all the three forages did not
change over the grazing period except for an increase (P<0.05) in NDF of millet. Calf ADG was
greatest (P <0.05) for BR compared to ML or DL, while dry matter intake (DMI) of the BR
calves tended to be greater (P=0.11) than ML or DL calves. No treatment differences were
observed in the finishing ADG (P>0.05) and carcass characteristics (P>0.05) of calves from the
three backgrounding systems. In Exp 2, four dry ruminally cannulated Holstein cows fed ground
grass hay were used in an in-situ degradability study to determine the extent of degradation and
rumen kinetic parameters of the 3 forages used in Exp 1. Effective degradability of DM and CP
iii
were similar for barley and millet and greater (P<0.05) than grass legume hay while NDF
degradability (P<0.05) of millet was greater than that of barley or grass legume hay. These
findings indicate that swath grazing barley or foxtail millet fed to beef calves resulted in similar
or decrease performance compared to a traditional drylot pen system. Cost of gain for the barley
swath grazed backgrounding system calves was 43 and 60.5% lower compared to a swath grazed
millet or drylot system, respectively. The economics of these systems would indicate that
backgrounding of calves on swath grazed barley is a more efficient and low cost system
compared to drylot.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USASK/oai:usask.ca:etd-03042011-153533 |
| Date | 31 March 2011 |
| Creators | Kumar, Ravinder |
| Contributors | Walburger, Ken, Lardner, Bart, McKinnon, John, Christensen, Dave |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | University of Saskatchewan Library |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-03042011-153533/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds