Feed intake and digestion by Holstein steers fed warm or cool season grass hays with corn, dried molasses, or wheat middlings.

This study determined the effects of adding a small amount of dried molasses to supplemental corn and of supplementing with corn, wheat middlings, or corn-wheat middlings mixture on intake and digestion by Holstein steers fed warn or cool season grass hays. Eight steers (175 kg BW), in two simultaneous Latin squares, were fed, once daily, bermuda-grass (72% NDF) or ryegrass-wheat (58% NDF) hay ad libitum, alone or with approximately .05% BW of dried molasses (with 31% roughage), 5% BW of ground corn, or both. Adding dried molasses to corn decreased feed intake but did not affect digestible OM intake. Total tract digestion of fiber from bermudagrass tended to be enhanced by adding dried molasses to corn. Eight steers (193 kg BW) were used in an experiment with the same design in which similar forages were fed alone or with corn (.5% BW), wheat middlings (.63% BW), or .25% BW of corn plus .31% BW of middlings. Feed intake for both grasses was similar among supplements. Wheat middlings depressed total tract fiber digestion more than corn with both forages. Supplementation with corn depressed fiber digestion slightly more with ryegrass-wheat than with bermudagrass, but wheat middlings had a slightly greater depressing effect on fiber digestion with bermudagrass. Associative effects of mixing corn and wheat middlings in OM digestion and digestible OM intake were negative for bermudagrass and positive for ryegrass-wheat. Interaction among characteristics of basal forage and concentrate modulated feed intake and digestion by ruminants.