Effects of steam-flaked corn on the performance and blood biochemical parameters in finishing steers

Abstract

This paper aims at studying the effect of steam-flaked corn instead of corn in the diet for finishing steers on the growth performance and blood biochemical parameters. A single-factor design was used. There were 28 simmental crossbred steers with the similar bodyweight (414.4±29.3 kg, P>0.05) selected and allotted to four groups with seven duplicates in each group. Steam-flaked corn replaced the proportion of normal cracked corn, which was of 0, 30%, 60%, or 90% in the concentrate of Groups I, II, III, or IV, respectively. The results showed that the steam-flaked corn replacing ordinary cracked corn could significantly improve the growth of steers. The daily growth rate (ADG) was increased by about 37.16% from 985.3 g/d to 1351.4 g/d. The feed efficiency was significantly improved by 27.46%. The feed to gain ratio was decreased from 5.68 to 4.12. Serum urea nitrogen was decreased from 4.59 mmol/L to 3.66 mmol/L. Under the experiment conditions, steam-flaked corn replacing ordinary cracked corn could increase the feed efficiency with an optimal replacing ratio of 90%.

Keywords

steam-flaked corn / feed to gain ratio / daily growth rate (ADG) / digestibility / blood biochemical parameters

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the earmarked fund for China Agriculture Research System (CARS-38) and the Key Technology R&D Program of Hebei Province, China (No. 10220401D)

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