Abstract:
EFFECTS OF FAT CONTAINING SUPPLEMENTS ON PERFORMANCE OF BEEF CATTLE FED MOLASSES BASED DIETS J.A. LINDSAY*, S.R. McLENNAN**, J.F. KIDD*, and I.E. KENDALL* Molasses is of cattle in the based on molasses liveweight gains. supplements will more protein. the cheapest source of energy for supplementary feeding tropical regions of the world. However, supplements with urea as a nitrogen source tend to produce low The addition of locally available fat containing not only provide the necessary addition energy but also Bos indicus crossbred steers were used in two pen studies to evaluate the effect of adding rice pollard or cotton oil to a supplement of molasses plus 8% urea (M8U) given with ad libitum native pasture hay (0.4% N). M4U was also offered with restricted hay (1 kg/d) and either rice pollard or whole cottonseed (WCS) was fed at various levels. The animals were fed daily for 63 days. TABLE 1. Mean liveweight change and mean dry matter intake In both experiments the M8U supplement maintained liveweight. The addition of rice pollard to M8U increased liveweight gain (LWG) by up to When M4U was offered the addition of rice Pollard or WCS 0.12 kg/d. significantly increased LWG by up to 0.5 kg/d (P<O.OS). However the differences between levels of supplement were not significant. The response curve of LWG and supplement level indicated that only the addition of more WCS would increase LWG further. These results show that both rice pollard and WCS are valuable supplements to boost animal performance when molasses based diets are fed. * ** Queensland Dept Primary Industries, Swan's Lagoon, Millaroo 4807 Dept Biochemistry, Microbiology and Nutrition, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351 29A