Interaction of replacing corn silage with soyhulls as a roughage source with or without 3% added wheat straw in the diet: impacts on intake, digestibility, and ruminal fermentation in steers fed high-concentrate diets1

• Published in: Translational animal science Vol. 6; no. 2
• Main Authors: Neville, Bryan W, Pickinpaugh, Wayde J, Mittleider, Lea J, Moore, Rebecca L, Swanson, Kendall C, Caton, Joel S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: US Oxford University Press 17-05-2022
• Subjects: Ruminant Nutrition
• ISSN: 2573-2102
• DOI: 10.1093/tas/txac061

Six ruminally cannulated steers [475.0 ± 49.6 kg initial body weight (BW)] were used in a 6 × 3 incomplete Latin square design (six treatments and three periods), to evaluate the impacts replacing of corn silage with pelleted soyhulls as roughage in high-concentrate finishing diets containing 30% modified distillers grains with solubles. Treatments were based on increasing dietary inclusion of soyhulls and consisted of: (1) Control (0), roughage supplied by dietary inclusion of 20% corn silage [dry matter (DM) basis]; (2) 50% replacement of corn silage with soyhulls (50); (3) 100% replacement of corn silage with soyhulls (100), and the same three treatments repeated with 3% added wheat straw (DM basis) replacing corn in the diet (0S, 50S, and 100S, respectively). Absolute dry matter intake (DMI; kg/d basis) tended to decrease both linearly and quadratically (
P
≤ 0.09) and proportional DMI (% of BW) decreased linearly (
P
= 0.04) with increasing soyhull inclusion but was not affected by the addition of straw in the diet (
P
= 0.68). Total tract digestibility of organic matter and crude protein were not affected by soyhull inclusion or added straw (
P
≥ 0.32). Ruminal pH did not differ (
P
= 0.65) with increasing soyhull inclusion but increased with the addition of straw (
P
< 0.01; 5.9 vs. 6.1 for no straw and straw, respectively). Molar proportions of acetate and butyrate decreased while propionate increased with increased soyhull inclusion (
P
≤ 0.03; linearly and quadratically, respectively). Ruminal fluid kinetics were unaffected by either rate of replacement of corn silage with soyhulls or wheat straw inclusion (
P
≥ 0.13). Decreases in DMI observed in this study would likely decrease finishing cattle performance and underscores the need for additional research before recommending this practice to cattle feeders.