Replacing maize grain with triticale grain in lactation diets for dairy cattle and fattening diets for steers

USGEN 10 triticale was compared with maize as a feed grain in a digestibility trial, a milk production trial and a fattening trial. Apparent digestibilities were determined with eight Holstein steers, in two blocks of a balanced cross-over design. The grain component of the four diets contained triticale and maize in the ratios 100:0, 66:34, 34:66 and 0:100, respectively. Digestibility coefficients were unaffected by level of dietary triticale substitution for maize. For the milk production trial eight Holstein cows were also allocated to two blocks of four animals each and fed the four treatment diets in four consecutive periods. Cows received forage consisting of 20% lucerne hay, 15% wheat straw and 65% oat silage (dry matter basis) ad libitum and a concentrate at 0.5 kg kg−1 milk produced. The grain component of the four concentrates was the same as in the digestibility trial. Milk fat percentage and 4% fat corrected milk production per kg concentrate consumed was lower (P < 0.05) on the dietary treatment containing only triticale grain compared to that on the treatments containing different levels of maize grain. For the fattening trial 30 steers were randomly allocated to the five dietary treatments by stratified sampling. The steers received complete diets for 100 days. The grain portion of the five fattening diets consisted of 100% maize, 75% maize: 25% triticale, 50% maize: 50% triticale, 25% maize: 75% triticale and 100% triticale. Steers on the 50% maize: 50% triticale diet tended to perform better than steers on diets containing only maize or triticale grain. Feed conversion ratio (carcass) was better (P < 0.05) for steers on the 50% maize: 50% triticale diet than for steers on the 100% triticale diet.