Inclusion of cottonseed meal into loose mineral mix supplements increases the voluntary intake of the supplement by grazing heifers
R. M. Dixon A C , A. Anderson B and J. C. Petherick AA Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), Centre for Animal Science, The University of Queensland, PO Box 6014, Rockhampton, Qld 4702, Australia.
B Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Spyglass Beef Research Facility, MS 99, Charters Towers, Qld 4820, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: r.dixon77@uq.edu.au
Animal Production Science 57(2) 315-319 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN15181
Submitted: 3 September 2014 Accepted: 29 October 2015 Published: 22 March 2016
Abstract
Loose mineral mix (LMM) supplements based on ingredients such as salt, urea and minerals offered ad libitum are widely used to provide additional nutrients to grazing cattle, but it is often difficult to achieve target intakes. An experiment with heifers grazing mature tropical pasture examined the effects of substituting 80, 160 or 320 g/kg of the salt in a LMM supplement with cottonseed meal on the voluntary intake of the LMM supplements by paddock groups of heifers over 10 weeks. Average voluntary intake of a LMM containing (g/kg) 640 salt, 300 urea and 60 ammonium sulfate (40.2 g DM and 6.14 g total nitrogen/day) was increased linearly (P < 0.001) to 50.8 g DM and 8.88 g total nitrogen/day when up to 320 g/kg cottonseed meal was substituted for salt in the LMM. This increase in intake of nitrogen in LMM was due to the increase in voluntary intake of the supplement rather than the increased nitrogen concentration of supplement. The distribution of daily intake of supplement within paddock groups of heifers was estimated during Weeks 5 and 10 using supplements labelled with lithium sulfate. Neither the coefficient of variation within paddock groups of heifers in supplement intake (mean 96%), nor the proportion of non-consumers of supplement (mean 17%), was changed (P > 0.05) by substitution of salt with cottonseed meal. In conclusion, the inclusion of a palatable protein meal into LMM increased the voluntary intake of this type of supplement.
Additional keywords: cattle, lithium marker, palatability, supplement intake, variability in intake.
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