Composition and Digestibility of Cattle Fecal Waste

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Three digestion trials were conducted with six yearling steers to study the apparent digestibility of fecal waste from steers fed a ground, high roughage finishing ration. In the first trial the steers were fed a basal ration containing approximately 50% roughage. The feces collected during this trial were dried in a forced-air oven at 120 C and ground. The chemical composition of the feces was 13.2% crude protein, 31.4% crude fiber, 2.8% ether extract, 5.4% ash, 47.2% NFE, 70.9% cell walls and 44.8% ADF, dry basis. During trials 2 and 3 a switch-back design was used to study in vivo digestibility of the cattle fecal waste, which was substituted for 20% of the basal ration. Apparent digestibility of dry matter was 68.2% for the basal ration and 57.4% for the ration in which 20% dry fecal waste had been substituted (P<.01). There were also large depressions (P<.01) in apparent digestibility of organic matter, crude protein, crude fiber, ether extract, NFE, cell solubles, cell walls, ADF, cellulose, hemicellulose and energy when dried fecal waste was included in the ration. Apparent digestibilities of fecal waste crude protein and dry matter, calculated by difference, were 24.4 and 16.6%, respectively. The dried fecal waste contained 763 kcal digestible energy and 485 kcal of metabolizable energy per kilogram of dry matter. In vitro dry matter digestibility of the fecal waste was 15.8%. It appears that dried fecal waste from cattle fed a 50% roughage ration has limited protein and energy value. Copyright © 1975. American Society of Animal Science . Copyright 1975 by American Society of Animal Science

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: