Deep-Stacked or Composted Broiler Litter in Growing Cattle Diets

A study was conducted to determine effects of feeding diets high in deep-stacked or composted broiler litter compared with diets differing in forage quality on feed intake, digestibility, and live weight gain in growing cattle. Holstein heifers (158±7.4kg initial BW) were fed .5% of their BW of bermudagrass hay, 1% of their BW of ground corn, and ad libitum quantities of bermudagrass hay (Control), alfalfa hay (ALF), or deep-stacked or composted broiler litter (D-L and C-L, respectively) in an 84-d experiment. Stacked and composted litters were 27 and 32% ash, 3.8 and 7.8% N, 58 and 36% NDF (DM basis), and 25 and 29% ADF N (total N basis), respectively. Total DM intake was similar among treatments (5.9, 6.3, 5.8, and 6.0kg/d for Control, ALF, D-L, and C-L, respectively); OM digestibility ranked (P<.05) ALF (78%)>Control (67%)>D-L (52%)>C-L (44%); and digestible OM intake was 3.65, 4.59, 2.49, and 1.99kg/d (SE=.378) for Control, ALF, D-L, and C-L, respectively. Live weight gain was greatest (P<.05) for ALF, greater (P<.05) for Control than for D-L and C-L, and tended (P<.10) to be greater for D-L than for C-L (.76, .86, .49, and .41kg/d for Control, ALF, D-L, and C-L, respectively). Gaimfeed DM was less (P<.05) with than without litter (.133, .137, .083, and .069 for Control, ALF, D-L, and C-L, respectively). In conclusion, high dietary levels of stacked or composted litter for growing ruminants with high energy requirements may restrict performance primarily as a result of low digestibility of litter. When used as a major component of diets for growing cattle, the feeding value of composted litter appears lower than that of stacked litter. However, feeding value of broiler litter used in this experiment may have been low to moderate relative to litter consumed by cattle in previous experiments.