Authors : M. Sabbagh Zade, N. Dabiri, J. Fayazi and M. Boujar Pour
Abstract: The effect of dietary containing different level of steam pressure hydrolyzed pith on performance and carcass characteristics in crossbred beef were investigated during a period of 20 weeks (140 days) using 24 beef of 3-5 month old with an average live weight of 157.5 kg. The dietary treatment were respectively 44% barley (diet1), 33% barley + 11%pith (diet2), 22% barley + 22% pith (diet3) and 11% barley + 33% pith (diet4). The beef were allocated to the diets according to complete block randomized design. The diet formulated according NRC and had approximately similar nutrition contents. Average Dry Matter Intake (DMI) of beef fed diet 1-4 during whole period of experiment were 6.62, 6.53, 6.48 and 6.34 kg day-1, respectively. Average Daily Gain (ADG) of beef for diets 1-4 during whole period of experiment were 1.07±0.06, 0.98±0.06, 0.86±0.07 and 0.77±0.07 kg day-1, respectively. Despite non-significantly difference between ADG of control group with beef fed diet 2 and 3, but beef fed diet 4 had significantly (p<0.05) lower ADG than control and treatment 2 groups. A significantly difference between feed conversion ratio (F/G) of control group with beef fed diet 4 was observed. Average F/G was, respectively 6.25±0.5, 6.67±0.5, 7.59±0.6 and 8.4±0.6 for diets 1-4. The main carcass characteristics were not affected by dietary treatment (p<0.05). This study suggests that beef fed diet 3 (22% barley + 22% pith) had also lower cost of production than control group which is important for Iran condition. So it concluded that pith a by product of sugar cane has been potential as an alternative feed source for ruminant.
M. Sabbagh Zade, N. Dabiri, J. Fayazi and M. Boujar Pour, 2009. Determination of Optimum Level of Steam Pressure Hydrolyzed Pith Bagasse in Feeding of Crossbred Beef. Research Journal of Biological Sciences, 4: 773-776.