Performance, behaviour and meat quality of beef heifers fed concentrate and straw offered as total mixed ration or free-choice
Iraira Higueras, Sergio Patricio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Ciència Animal i dels Aliments)
Madruga Criado, Ana (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Ciència Animal i dels Aliments)
Pérez Juan, María (Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries)
Ruíz de la Torre, José Luís (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Ciència Animal i dels Aliments)
Rodriguez Prado, María (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Ciència Animal i dels Aliments)
Calsamiglia, Sergio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Ciència Animal i dels Aliments)
Manteca Vilanova, Xavier (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Ciència Animal i dels Aliments)
Ferret, Alfred (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Ciència Animal i dels Aliments)

Date:	2015
Abstract:	Eighteen Simmental heifers were fed concentrate and barley straw offered as a total mixed ration (TMR) or separately as a free choice (FCH) to compare performance, behaviour, and meat quality. The heifers were assigned to treatments in a randomized complete block design. Animals were allotted to roofed pens with 3 animals per pen, and 3 pens per treatment. Intake of concentrate, average daily gain, and gain to feed ratio were not different between diets, being on average 7. 6 kg/day, 1. 38 kg/day and 0. 18 kg/kg, respectively. Straw intake was greater in TMR than in FCH treatment (0. 7 vs 0. 3 kg/day, respectively; p<0. 001). Crude protein intake, neutral detergent fibre intake and water consumption did not differ between treatments. Time spent eating was longer in FCH than in TMR (p=0. 001), whereas time spent ruminating and total chewing time were longer (p<0. 01) in TMR than in FCH. The number of displacements resulting from competition for feed in the main feeder in TMR treatment tended to be greater than in FCH treatment. There were no differences in the carcass characteristics and quality of meat of animals assigned to the different feeding methods, but the percentage of 18:2 n-6 was higher in FCH treatment. In summary, these results suggest that the use of TMR as a feeding method in beef cattle fed high concentrate diets did not affect performance and increased time spent ruminating with a potential decrease of ruminal acidosis incidence.
Grants:	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación AGL2008-03729
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Beef cattle ; Feeding method ; High concentrate diets
Published in:	Spanish journal of agricultural research, Vol. 13, Núm. 4 (2015) , art. e0610, ISSN 2171-9292

Adreça alternativa: https://revistas.inia.es/index.php/sjar/article/view/8003
DOI: 10.5424/sjar/2015134-8003

11 p, 278.1 KB

The record appears in these collections:
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles