Abstract

The exploitation of dairy steers for meat production is an alternative to improve production rates, but feed alternatives to cereal grains like corn used in animal feed should be researched. In this study, we aimed to evaluate performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality of dairy steers consuming different levels (0, 250, 500, 750, and 1000 g/kg, dry matter basis) of mesquite pod meal replacing corn. Twenty-five intact Holstein-Zebu dairy steers at approximately 18 months of age and with an initial body weight of 219±22 kg were used. A completely randomized design with five treatments (replacement levels) and five replications (animals) was adopted, and data were analyzed using PROC GLM for analysis of variance and PROC REG for regression analysis. There was no significant influence of the levels of replacement of corn by the mesquite pod meal as regards dry matter intake, final body weight, weight gain, carcass weight, or carcass yield (P > 0.05). The meat quality of the cattle was not significantly affected by the different levels of replacement (P > 0.05). Mesquite pod meal can fully replace corn in diets for dairy steers.

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