The effects of substituting cotton seed cake with dried poultry litter in the pen fattening of beef cattle

Abstract

Exorbitant prices and the unavailability of cotton seed cake on the Zimbabwean market are a major constraint to pen fattening of beef cattle on the farms. This study was conducted at New Donnington Farm to evaluate the effects of dried poultry litter (26% Crude Protein) as a substitute of cotton seed cake (31% Crude Protein) on average daily gain, total weight gain, feed conversion ratio and costs of formulating rations of Brangus steers. Thirty steers aged 18 months weighing 300±5 kg were randomly allocated to 5 treatments, 24 steers were fed dried poultry litter based rations and 6 steers were fed the control ration for 90 days in a completely randomised design experiment which was replicated six times. Formulated rations were Isoenergetic (12.50 MJ ME/ kg) and Isonitrogenous (16% Crude Protein). The final average daily gains, total weight gains and feed conversion ratios were significantly different (p>0.05) for all treatments. Treatment 1 (control) had the highest average daily gain, total weight gain and least feed conversion ratio followed by treatment 2 (25% dried poultry litter). Treatment 5 (100% dried poultry litter) had the least average daily gain, total weight gain and highest feed conversion ratio. Average daily gain and total weight gain declined as dried poultry litter inclusion levels increased whilst the feed conversion ratio increased with an increase in level of dried poultry litter inclusion. Dried poultry litter inclusion reduced fattening costs without adverse effects on steers’ performance at low inclusion levels. Based on the findings of this study dried poultry litter is a fairly low quality feed that reduces production at higher inclusion levels in fattening diets.