Effect of Soybean, Feather and Hair Meals and Fat on the Performance of Growing-finishing Beef Cattle 1'2

Three feedlot studies were conducted with growing-finishing beef cattle to compare the nutritional value of soybean meal (SBM), hydrolyzed feather meal (FM) and hydrolyzed hog hair meal (HM) as sources of supplemental protein. Eight different pelleted protein supplements were formulated by replacing 25 to 100% of the SBM protein in a control supplement (Supplement A) with FM and/or HM protein. Approximately 8 to 30% of the dietary crude protein (CP) in 12.5% CP diets (dry basis) was supplied by FM and/or HM protein in the various experiments. Steer calves (Experiment 1) receiving a corn silage-high-moisture corn diet supplemented with various protein supplements containing 19 or 31% FM or HM exhibited no significant differences in daily gains, feed efficiency, feed consumption or carcass characteristics. Addition of .23 kg of feed grade fat to each supplement type did not significantly affect daily gains or carcass characteristics. Steers receiving added fat consumed significantly less (13%) dry matter (DM) than did steers receiving no additional fat. Heifer calves (Experiment 2) fed a corn silage-cracked corn diet supplemented with protein supplements containing either 9 or 19% FM or HM or containing 9% of both FM and HM were significantly less efficient in converting dry feed to gain than were heifers receiving a SBM supplement. There were no significant differences in gains, feed consumption or carcass characteristics of heifers receiving the different