Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Station Lafayette, Indiana
Mimeo AS-276 April 22, 1960 (Progress Report)
THE VALUE OF AN IMPLANTED TRANQUILIZER AND OF SUPPLEMENTAL ENZYMES WHEN FED WITH EITHER HIGH-MOISTURE ENSILED SHELLED CORN OR REGULAR SHELLED CORN TO FATTENING BEEF STEERS l/,2/
T. W. Perry, W. M. Beeson and D. D. Cope
The practice of storing com as high-moisture ensiled com has attracted much interest because it has many apparent advantages. It permits earlier picking and thus results in harvesting a higher percent of the grain because less lodging of stalks will have occurred; no drying methods are necessary to insure that the corn will not spoil; and high-moisture ensiled corn works very well in an automation type of cattle feeding system.
Enzyme research with fattening beef cattle has been conducted at several college and university experimental farms. There have been reports indicating advantages of feeding enzymes to beef cattle. Other reports, however, have shown no advantage for feeding enzymes.
Conflicting reports concerning the value of feeding tranquilizers to beef cattle are in the literature. However, a more recent development in the field of tranquilizers has been the manufacture of compressed tablets which may be implanted under the hide. Therefore, the objectives of this research were:
1.	To further compare ensiled high-moisture shelled com with shelled corn from ear com cribbed at usual moisture content for fattening beef cattle.
2.	To compare enzyme mixtures from three different sources.
3.	To compare the effect of enzymes when fed with high-moisture shelled corn and with regular shelled corn.
k. To study the effect of implanting varying levels of a tranquilizer under the hide.
Experimental Procedure
Eighty Hereford steer calves from Oklahoma, averaging 5B0 pounds, were divided into eight lots of 10 each on the basis of liveweight and outward appearance, and were started on experiment on November 17, i960. All lots are being fed a fattening ration consisting of the following:
l/ Acknowledgement is made to the A. 0. Smith Corporation, Milwaukee,
“ Wisconsin, for furnishing the Harvestore for ensiling the high-moisture corn
2/ The research reported in this mimeograph was supported in part by grants' ” in-aid from the following:	Miles Chemical Company, Clifton, New Jersey;
Merck and Company, Rahway, New Jersey and Smith, Kline and French Laboratories, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.