ORIGINAL PAPER
Performance, carcass quality and blood metabolites of Holstein bulls on feedlot feeding of different proportions of barley grain to maize grain
 
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1
University of Tehran, Department of Animal Science, Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, PC 31587-77871 Karaj, Iran
 
2
Department of Animal and Food Sciences Texas Tech University Lubbock 79409-2141, Texas, USA
 
 
Publication date: 2013-03-22
 
 
Corresponding author
M. Dehghan-banadaky   

University of Tehran, Department of Animal Science, Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, PC 31587-77871 Karaj, Iran
 
 
J. Anim. Feed Sci. 2013;22(1):35-43
 
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ABSTRACT
This experiment was conducted to study the effects of five different ratios of barley grain to maize grain: 1) 100:00, 2) 75:25, 3) 50:50, 4) 25:75, and 5) 00:100 on feedlot performance, carcass quality, ruminal and blood parameters of twenty-five Holstein bulls. Quadratic effects were detected for carcass efficiency and were greatest for diets with barley grain-to-maize grain ratios of 75:25 and 50:50 compared with other diets. Also, back-fat thickness, abdominal fat, and meat ether extract increased as the proportion of maize increased in the diets (P < 0.05). When the proportion of maize in diets increased, the amount of undigested grain in feces increased linearly (P < 0.05). At 3 and 6 h after feeding, as the proportion of barley increased in the diets, ruminal pH decreased quadratically. We conclude that feeding bulls diets based on 50:50 and 75:25 barley-to-maize grain ratios resulted in higher carcass efficiency and optimal ruminal parameters.
 
CITATIONS (1):
1.
Influence of barley grain particle size and treatment with citric acid on digestibility, ruminal fermentation and microbial protein synthesis in Holstein calves
M. Kazemi-Bonchenari, A. Z. M. Salem, S. López
animal
 
ISSN:1230-1388
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