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Molasses and fish meal for growing cattle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2017

S Thomas
Affiliation:
The North of Scotland College of Agriculture581 King Street, ABERDEEN AB9 1UD
A Mahmud
Affiliation:
Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Training Department, P O Box 63247, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Extract

There is evidence that silage may be utilised more effectively when supplemented with sugar rather than starch (Thomas and Rae, 1988). A trial was made to measure the effect of supplementing silage with a sugar-based feed (molasses) or a starch-based feed (barley), in combination with fish meal, on the performance of young growing cattle.

Sixty four castrated male calves (Limousin x Friesian and Hereford x Friesian) initially weighing 129 kg were offered grass silage (DM, 200 g/kg; ME, 10.4 MJ/kg DM; CP, 144 g/kg DM) ad libitum with four dietary supplements.

Daily supplementation was as follows:

  • 1.0.25 kg white-fish meal

  • 2.0.25 kg fish meal plus 0.4 kg molasses

  • 3.0.25 kg fish meal plus 0.8 kg molasses

  • 4.0.25 kg fish meal plus 0.75 kg bruised barley

The levels of molasses and barley in Treatments 3 and 4 supplied the same amount of dry matter.

Type
Beef Production and Nutrition
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Production 1989

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References

Thomas, C and Rae, R C. 1988. Concentrate supplementation of silage for dairy cows. In: P C, Garnsworthy (ed) Nutrition and Lactation of the Dairy Cow. Proceedings of the 46th University of Nottingham Easter School, Butterworths, London pp 327354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar