By G. E. Erickson and A. K. Watson
Cattle are tremendous up cyclers, and by-products such as wet distillers grains, sugar beet pulp, soyhulls, cottonseed hulls and many others and have successfully and economically added to their diets. The marine microalgae production industry is another industry in need of an outlet for a by-product.
Marine microalgae have the ability to harvest sugars and carbon dioxide converting them into metabolites such as n-3 fatty acids. Because of this, marine microalgae have been proposed as a sustainable solution for reducing pressure on wild-caught aquaculture. Production of algae oil from these algae results in a by-product known as condensed algae residue solubles (CARS). As production of CARS increases, availability of up cycling increases.
Four hundred and predominately Angus, British crossbred steers were fed for 148 days. Treatments were designed with 3 inclusion levels of CARS at 0, 2.5, and 5% of the diet.
Carcass-adjusted final Body weight, average daily gain, and feed efficiency increased with CARS inclusion at 2.5% of diet dry matter. However, feedlot performance decreased when CARS was 5% of diet dry matter.
Source : osu.edu