Feeding Value of Drought Damaged Corn Silage for Growing Cattle

In two trials steers averaging 272 kg were fed drought or normal silages with either 0 or 2.7 kg corn grain and .57 kg supplement/head/day. Steers fed drought silage had gains as rapid and efficient as steers fed normal silage. Steers fed corn gained faster and converted feed more efficiently (P<.05) than steers fed no corn. In a third trial steers fed either normal or drought silage and soybean meal gained an average of .82 and .67 kg per day (P<.05) and required 7.7 and 9.7 kg feed/kg gain, respectively. When no supplemental protein was fed, steer gains and feed conversions were the same for the two silages. Gains of steers fed drought silage supplemented with urea were not different (P>.05) from those of steers fed no protein, while gains of steers fed soybean meal were greater (P< .05) and more efficient than those fed urea. On the other hand, steers fed normal silage supplemented with urea gained faster (P<.05) and more efficiently than those fed no protein, but somewhat slower (P>.05) and less efficiently than those fed soybean meal. Feeding value of 1968 drought silage was near that of normal corn. In 1974, feeding value of drought silage was about 80% of normal corn based on feed efficiency.