Effects of Different Levels of Soybean Curd Residue as an Ingredient of TMR on Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Holstein Steers
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of different levels of soybean curd residue as an ingredient of TMR on growth performance and carcass characteristics of Holstein steers. Twenty four Holstein steers of 7 months age(average body weight 274.6 kg) were randomly allocated to 3 experimental groups, which contained 8animals per group during 15-months feeding trial. The treatments composed of the group fed concentrate and rice straw separately (Control), the group fed TMR containing low levels of soybean curd (T1), the group fed TMR containing high levels of soybean curd residue (T2). Body weight and average daily gain were not significantly different among the treatment groups during the feeding trial periods. Feed intake was not differ among treatment groups, but feed conversion ratio was significantly higher in T2 group compared to T1 group during late fattening stage (p<0.05). However, it was not different in overall average. According to the yield traits, carcass weight of control, T1 and T2 were 466.4, 451.1 and 460.1 kg, respectively. Back fat thickness, rib eye area and yield index were not different among the groups. The marbling score, meat color, texture and maturity in quality traits were not different among the treatment groups, but fat color was significantly higher in T2 group compared to T1 group (p<0.05). The quality grade (1+:1:2:3, NO.) tended to be higher for T1(0:2:1:5) and T2 (0:1:4:3) compared with the control (0:0:3:5). Therefore, these results indicated that TMR with soybean curd residue may be appropriate the growth performance and carcass characteristics of Holstein steers.