Limit Feeding Beef Cattle

(allowed to eat according to appetite). Generally, this allows for maximum performance because energy consumed above the maintenance requirement is available for gain. However, recent work suggests that limit-fed animals may have better feed efficiency. This has economic importance in that changes in feed efficiency have three times the impact on cost of gain as an equal change in rate of gain. Limit feeding also allows a producer to target weights for breeding cattle, grass cattle or marketing of cattle. It also reduces the amount of manure produced which must be utilized. Animals fed under ad libitum conditions will have fluctuations in feed intake. These fluctuations may result in decreased feed utilization due to digestive disturbances. It is also important to realize that as intake increases, rate of passage increases and digestibility decreases. As feed moves through the gastrointestinal tract faster, digestibility is reduced because the feed is exposed to digestive processes for a shorter time. It is possible that a reduction in feed intake will improve digestibility. The improvement in digestibility with limit feeding has been observed in several experiments and has resulted in better than predicted animal performance. There is also interest in limit-feeding high energy diets to beef cattle because corn and some co-products can be cheaper sources of energy than hay or other roughage. Table 1 illustrates the relative energy costs of corn and hay.