Examination of Availability of Whole Crop Silage TMR for Late Fattening Hanwoo Steers in the Cattle

The present study was conducted with three ruminally cannulated non-lactating Holstein cattle in a 3 × 3 Latin square design to determine the fermentation characteristics and effective degradability (ED) in the rumen, as well as the whole tract digestibility of whole crop silage based total mixed ration (TMR) in comparison with conventional separate feeding of concentrate and rice straw for late fattening Hanwoo steers. The cattle in each group were fed separate feeding of concentrate and rice straw (control), whole crop barley silage based TMR (BS-TMR) or whole crop rye silage based TMR (RS-TMR). The ruminal fermentation characteristics such as pH, ammonia-N concentration and total volatile fatty acid were not affected by the experimental diet. The molar portion of acetate (C2) was lowest in rumen fluid 1 h after feeding when cattle were fed BS-TMR (p<0.033). Molar proportions of propionate (C3), butyrate and C2/C3 were not influenced by the experimental diet. There were no differences in effective degradability or whole tract digestibility of feed components among any of the experimental diets. The data obtained from the metabolism trial indicate that the feeding value of TMR with BS or RS is equal to that of a conventional separate feeding of concentrate and rice straw.