Research Progress Report 389
June, 1971

Regular vs. 'Activated' Verxite Grits as
a Roughage Extender for Finishing Lambs
T. W. Perry and J. A. Osborn, Animal Sciences Department

The use of a variety of roughage extenders for ruminant feeding has been investigated. Such products tested include oyster shells, clays, sawdust and verxite grits, a vermiculite ore concentrate containing approximately 80% vermiculite. 1/ Perry, et_ al. 2/ (1970) reported that 10 pounds of verxite grits successfully replaced 82 pounds of ground corn cobs in cattle finishing rations.
In that research, cattle fed corn cobs in their normal ratio to shelled corn required 181 pounds of cobs per 100 pounds of gain. Cattle from which half of the cobs were removed required 99 pounds of cobs plus 10 pounds of verxite grits per 100 pounds of gain. Rolled shelled corn requirement per unit of gain was comparable (721 vs. 719 pounds per 100 pounds of gain).
The objective of the research reported herein was to study the value of regular verxite grits as a roughage extender vs. "activated" verxite grits for any stimulating growth responses for finishing lambs.

1/ Provided by Zonolite Construction Products Div., W. R. Grace and Co., Cambridge, Mass.
2/ Perry, T. W., Martin Stob and D. A. Huber. 1970. The value of verxite grits and of RAL in beef cattle finishing rations. Purdue Univ. Ext. Publ. AS-392.

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
Experiment I. Forty-eight female and castrate male lambs were divided as nearly equally as possible into three lots of 16 each on the basis of liveweight and sex. One lot of lambs was assigned the control treatment of Purdue 58 pellet -- a complete, mixed, pelleted ration (Table 1). For the second lot, one-half the cobs were removed and were replaced with an equivalent of corn.
For the third lot, half the cobs in the Purdue 58 pellet were removed, and verxite grits were added back at the rate of 1 pound of grits for each 5 pounds of corn cobs. Ground corn was added back for the remainder of the replaced cobs. Protein level was held constant in all formulations.
Experiment II. Forty-four female and castrate male lambs were divided into four lots of 11 each on the basis of liveweight and sex. The control lot was fed the Purdue 58 pellet (Table 2). In a second lot, one-half the cobs were removed and were replaced with ground corn. In the third lot, one-half of the cobs were removed, and verxite grits were added at a level of 1% and corn was added to complete the formula. In the fourth lot, the formulation was comparable to that in the third lot except that the verxite grits

PURDUE UNIVERSITY • Agricultural Experiment Station • Lafayette, Indiana