Oats grain as an alternative to corn in beef cattle diets

MARCNAC, J.A.; ARELOVICH, H.M.; MARTINEZ, M.F.; AMELA, M.I.; BRAVO, R.D.

Canada

Otro; ADSA, CSAS, ASAS 2009 Joint Annual Meeting.; 2009

ABS #: 363 Oats grain as an alternative to corn in beef cattle diets. J.A. Marcenac, H.M.  Arelovich, M.F. Martínez, M.I.Amela, and R.D. Bravo. Although corn is used for beef cattle feeding in Argentina, its availability is limited in semiarid areas. This experiment was designed to evaluate the effect of replacing corn with oats on beef cattle performance. Eight Aberdeen Angus calves (229 kg initial BW) were individually housed and fed a mixed diet. The treatments were: 1) Oats grain diet (OGD): 20% hay plus 80% oats-pellet, and 2) Corn grain diet (CGD): 20% hay plus 80% corn-pellet. The hay was an alfalfa-grass mixture, and the pellet ingredients were 75.0, 14.4, 7.0, and 0.06% in OGD; and 75.0, 11.05, 10.0, and 0.45% in CGD of grain, wheat middlings, sunflower meal and urea respectively. Pellets also included 1.5% NaCl, 1.0% CaCO3, and 1.0% mineral-vitamin mix with monensin.The average chemical composition of both diets was 14.6, 36.9, 17.5, and 9.8% of DM for CP, NDF, ADF, and ash, respectively. The treatments OGD and CGD were randomly allotted to 4 individually fed calves/treatment, fed ad libitum  once daily at 0900 h for 62 d. Performance measurements included DMI, ADG, feed-to-gain ratio (FC), and total tract apparent DM digestibility (DIG). Blood samples collected via jugular venipuncture were analyzed for glucose (GLU), total protein (TP), and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA). Data were analyzed by ANOVA as a completed randomized design. Results are reported in the table. The DMI and ADG were increased by CGD (<i>P</i>  < .05); however, no differences were found for FC, probably because total DDMI was similar for the 2 diets. Blood measurements were not affected by treatments, remaining within standard reference values. As far as FC is concerned, oats seems to effectively replace corn in diets for growing beef cattle. Performance and blood parameters of calves receiving oats (OGD) or corn (CGD) diets. Item                                 OGD       CGD     SEM     <i>P</i> = Performance,    DMI kg/d                      7.1           7.9         0.20        0.03    DIG, %                         77.5        74.1      0.37        0.17    DDMI, kg/d^{1}^          5.5           5.9         0.20        0.22     ADG, g                         1225       1412     18            0.0003    FC                                5.8           5.6         0.10        0.26 Blood serum,    GLU, g/L                      1.41        1.19      0.17        0.26    TP, g/100 mL              6.79        6.53      0.09        0.14    FFA, mEq/L                0.40        0.44      0.06        0.66 ^{1}^DDMI: digestible DM intake, computed from DIG x DMI Key words: oats, corn, beef cattle.