Effects of rapeseed silage variety and dietary level on digestion and growth performance of beef steers.

A digestion and ruminal fermentation trial involving five ruminally cannulated steers assigned to a 5 x 5 Latin square with a 2 x 2 + 1 arrangement of dietary treatments was conducted to evaluate the effects of variety of rapeseed silage (RS) containing either a high (HG) or a low (LG) glucosinolate concentration when fed at 100 or 50% of diet DM. A bromegrass hay-corn-soybean meal mixture, which was expected to be isocaloric and isonitrogenous with the RS, was used as the control (C) treatment and replaced RS in the 50% diets. In situ disappearance of substrate from both RS varieties was measured in ruminal environments created by each diet. No dietary treatment x RS substrate interactions were observed for any in situ variable. Total tract digestibility and extent of in situ disappearance of both DM and NDF were greater (P less than .01) for HG than for LG. In situ DM and NDF disappearance at 8, 16 and 24 h was greater (P less than .01) for RS than for the C diet. Similarly, total tract DM digestibility was greater (P less than .01) for RS (61.0%) vs C (56.0%) diets. Diets with 50% RS had greater (P less than .01) NDF digestibility (50.4%) than 100% RS (43.6%) diets. Variety of RS had no effect on particulate passage rate. In a 77-d growth trial with 60 beef steers, ADG was greater (P less than .01) for HG vs LG (.46 vs .36 kg), 50 vs 100% (.52 vs .31) and C vs RS (.64 vs .41) diets.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)