Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of partially replacing steam-flaked corn (SFC) with high-moisture rolled sorghum grain (HMRS) on dry matter intake (DMI) and apparent total tract digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and ether extract (EE) in finishing diets for beef steers. High-moisture sorghum grain was harvested in the Texas Panhandle at 28% moisture, processed with a roller mill bagger (Richiger R990MXPlus) equipped with four rollers set at 1 mm, and stored in a 2.7-m-diameter bag for 10.3 months. The average kernel processing score, expressed as the percentage of starch passing a 2.36-mm sieve, was 47%. Twelve ruminally cannulated Angus steers (774 ± 63 kg BW) were used in a quadruplicated 3 × 3 Latin square design to evaluate three dietary treatments: 1) HMRS0, control diet containing 63.3% SFC, 20% Sweet Bran, 11% corn stalks, 3% mineral–vitamin premix, 2% corn oil, and 0.7% urea; 2) HMRS25, with 25% of SFC replaced by HMRS; and 3) HMRS50, with 50% replacement. Steers were fed once daily ad libitum, and feed refusals were collected and weighed before morning feeding to determine DMI. Fecal samples were collected three times daily, and chromium oxide (Cr2O3; 15 g/day delivered as two capsules) was administered into the rumen beginning 10 days before the sampling period and continued through the end of collection. Fecal chromium concentrations were analyzed spectrophotometrically at the North Dakota State University Nutrition Laboratory. Data were analyzed using the MIXED procedure of SAS, with treatment as the fixed effect and Latin square, period (within square), and steer (within square) as random effects. Replacing SFC with HMRS did not affect (P = 0.46) DMI among treatments. However, total tract digestibility of DM, OM, and EE decreased as HMRS inclusion increased. Digestibility of DM was 77.2, 73.4, and 71.8% for HMRS0, HMRS25, and HMRS50, respectively (P = 0.004; linear P = 0.001), with both HMRS25 and HMRS50 lower than HMRS0. Digestibility of OM was 77.7, 74.0, and 72.8% (P 0.001; linear P 0.001), and both HMRS levels differed from the control. For EE, digestibility values were 72.3, 69.0, and 65.6% (P = 0.025; linear P = 0.008), with a significant reduction observed between HMRS0 and HMRS50. No significant differences were detected for CP (74.4, 73.0, and 72.1%) or NDF (40.7, 36.5, and 39.5%). In summary, partial replacement of steam-flaked corn with high-moisture rolled sorghum grain did not affect feed intake but reduced total tract digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, and ether extract in finishing diets.
Pilati et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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