198 Forage sorghum silage as an alternative roughage source in beef cattle feedlot diets
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Forage sorghum is a summer annual crop characterized by drought tolerance, rapid growth, and adaptation to marginal soil. Corn silage is a commonly fed roughage source in feedlot diets but suffers production issues when challenged by drought and poor soil fertility. Forage sorghum can be an alternative forage source in beef cattle diets; however, its increased fiber concentration relative to corn silage may restrict growth performance. The objective of this study was to compare the effects of feeding corn silage or forage sorghum silage to cattle at equal NDF on growth performance and carcass characteristics. Crossbred beef x dairy steers (n=68, initial weight = 448 ± 4kg) and heifers (n=71, initial weight = 452 ± 3kg) were stratified by sex and sire breed and assigned to one of three treatments, based on dietary dry matter inclusion: corn silage at 20% (CORN), forage sorghum silage at 11% (SORG), or corn silage at 11% with forage sorghum silage 5.5% (BLEND). Diets included dry-rolled corn and were formulated to supply equal dietary NDF (22.4 %). Individual intakes were recorded via Growsafe Feed Intake Monitoring System (Model 400E, Vytelle, Calgary, AB, Canada). Steers and heifers were fed to a target final body weight (BW) of 680kg and 635kg, respectively, and were slaughtered in 5 groups. Dry matter intake (DMI) was 8% and 6% greater (P < 0.01) when cattle fed SORG and BLEND, respectively, were compared to cattle fed CORN. Average daily gain (ADG) was 5% and 4% greater (P = 0.02) for cattle consuming SORG and BLEND, respectively, when compared to cattle consuming CORN. The increase in both ADG and DMI resulted in similar (P = 0.20) gain to feed ratios regardless of treatment. Cattle fed SORG tended (P = 0.07) to have 12kg and 3kg heavier shrunk final BW than cattle consuming CORN and BLEND, respectively. Although shrunk final BW tended to be different, hot carcass weight (HCW) and dressing percent (DP) did not differ (P > 0.05) by treatment. No differences (P > 0.05) were detected for any other carcass characteristics. Cattle fed CORN had a greater (P = 0.02) back calculated NEm and NEg than cattle fed SORG, while cattle consuming BLEND were intermediate. These data suggest that forage sorghum silage can replace some or all of the corn silage in feedlot cattle diets without negatively impacting growth or carcass performance when balanced to equal dietary NDF.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".