Effect of dietary level of barley-based supplements and ruminal buffer on digestion and growth by beef cattle

Six ruminally cannulated beef steers were used in a 6 x 6 Latin square experiment with a 3 x 2 factorial arrangement of treatments to evaluate the effects of barley supplementation (BS; 10, 30 or 50% of diet DM) and ruminal buffer (RB; Na sesquicarbonate at 0 or 4% of BS DM) addition to bromegrass hay-based diets on digestion. When early- (boot) and late- (full maturity) havested bromegrass and wheat straw substrates were incubated in situ, no interactions (P greater than .10) involving substrate with dietary BS or RB were observed, indicating that forages differing in fermentability responded similarly to different ruminal environments. Averaged across substrates, RB had no effect with 10% BS and a positive effect with 30% BS, but a negative effect with 50% BS diets (BS x RB, quadratic; P less than .05) for in situ DM and NDF disappearance for 18 and 24 h of incubation and for rate of disappearance of potentially degraded DM and NDF. Intakes of DM and digested DM were greater (P less than .01) for RB diets; however, RB had no effect (P greater than .10) on total tract DM and NDF digestibility. Intake and digestibility of DM increased linearly (P less than .01), whereas NDF digestibility decreased linearly (P less than .01) as BS percentage was increased in the diet. Sixty beef steers (avg initial wt 302 kg) were fed the same dietary treatments in a growth experiment. A numerical improvement in DM intake (P = .20) and ADG (P = .06) was observed when RB was provided with the 50% BS diet. Results of these experiments indicate that RB may moderate negative effects occurring on ruminal fiber digestion when grains are used to supplement forage-based diets; however, improvements in ruminal digestion were not translated effectively to improved animal productivity.