Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Station1 Lafayette, Indiana
THE COMPARATIVE VALUE OF PELLETED RATIONS CONTAINING 20%, 40% or 60% HAY FOR FATTENING BEEF STEERS
T. W. Perry, C. H. Nickel, Donald Webb and W. M. Beeson (Conducted at Lynnwood Farm, Carmel, Indiana)
_______________________________________Summary___________________________________
Pelleting a predominatly concentrate ration for Beef cattle (Lot 2) apparently depressed daily gain 11 percent (2.00 vs. 2.26 pound per day) but improved efficiency of feed utilization 6 percent (930 vs. 990 pounds feed per 100 pounds gain). This agrees with previous research conducted at Purdue.
Cattle fed the higher levels of hay (^0 percent and 60 percent in their pelleted ration gained more rapidly, but consumed more feed and required more feed per unit of gain than those fed the pelleted ration containing 20 percent hay.
Cattle fed the pellets containing the higher levels of hay appeared to have slightly better carcasses.
Most economical gains were obtained with cattle fed the 60 percent hay pellet containing no protein supplement. Furthermore, these cattle sold and dressed as well as any other of the lots of cattle, but suffered a larger shrink in transit.
This research offers further evidence that there is an advantage for pelleting a predominantly roughage ration for beef cattle, but that there is little nutritional advantage for pelleting a predominantly concentrate ration.
Pelleting Interest
Interest in the potential of pelleted rations for livestock has been high. In the case of beef cattle, research results have indicated there is no apparent nutritional advantage for pelleting predominantly concentrate rations, but that it is advantageous to pellet a roughage ration. What is the minimum amount of roughage necessary in a ration to make it nutritionally advantageous to pellet the ration?
The objective of this research was to compare three levels of ground hay (20 percent, 40 percent and 60 percent) in a complete mixed ration pellet containing approximately 11 percent crude protein. A fourth lot was fed a comparative standard ration containing 20 percent long hay, and corn and supplement in meal form.
Experimental Procedure
Four lots of 11 yearling steers each were fed rations whose compositions are listed in Table 1. The trial started on June 21, and ended on October 10, i960--a total of 111 days.
Mimeo AS-298 January 1961