Liveweight response to supplementation of pen-fed and grazing cattle eating barley stubble

Abstract

Liveweight responses to two levels of supplementary feeding were compared in young cattle grazing barley stubble or fed baled material in pens. Over the 58 d of the experiment, unsupplemented animals in pens lost 0.5 kg/d, those receiving the low energy-mineral supplement maintained their initial weight, and those receiving a moderate energy-mineral supplement gained 0.3 kg/d. In contrast, cattle grazing stubble did not show any liveweight response to supplementation, all three treatments gaining at 0.6-0.7 kg/d. Grazing cattle were apparently capable of selecting a diet of much higher quality than the leaf and stem material on offer. The results emphasize the need for caution in extrapolating, to the grazing animal, results obtained in pen-feeding evaluation of heterogenous materials such as crop residues.