Influence of Supplemental Acetate Feeding on the Voluntary Intake of Cattle Fed Green Corn and Corn Silage

Two trials were conducted with cattle using reduced switchback designs to study the effect on voluntary intake of adding five levels of acetate, 0 to 6% on a dry matter basis, to green corn forage and corn silage.The voluntary consumption of up to 112.8 g acetate per 100 kg body weight daily tended to reduce forage dry matter intake but had no significant effect on caloric intake.The animals showed no evidence of distress at the highest level acetate fed.In these trials the animals were substituting energy from acetate for energy from forage.