By Alejandro E. Relling, Gary Lowe and Francis L. Fluharty
Smaller farms often lack the control over feeding and weighing that commercial feedlots possess. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of oscillating feeding time and oscillating diet formulation on growth performance and carcass characteristics in feedlot cattle fed dry, whole shelled corn–based diets. A total of 168 steers were allotted to 24 pens. Pens were assigned to 1 of 3 treatments: (1) control, fed the same diet and at the same time each day; (2) oscillating feeding time, fed the same diet as control fed 1 hour earlier on odd days and 1 hour later on even days of the experiment; and (3) oscillating diet formulation, fed the diet at the same time every day but with diet formulation changed daily (10% distillers dried grains with solubles was added on the even days and 10% removed on the odd days).
Animal performance was measured over 166 to 174 days. At the end of the experiment, steers were weighed and slaughtered, and carcass characteristics were evaluated. There was no treatment effect (P > 0.05) for any variable. In conclusion, small daily diet formulation or feed delivery timing variations did not affect performance and carcass characteristics when whole shelled corn was fed to feedlot cattle.
Bunk management can affect performance, carcass characteristic, and production efficiency of feedlot cattle. A common practice in feedlot production is to feed the exact same diet at the same time every day to avoid changes in the ruminal pH that may decrease performance. When whole shelled corn is fed as the major energy source of the diet, there may be a margin of error for time and nutrient changes that do not decrease performance or carcass characteristics in feedlot cattle.