A 99-day study was conducted to evaluate
growth performance of 216 beef heifers (average
524 lb) fed traditional roughage-based diets
at 2.75% of body weight or limit-fed highconcentrate
diets containing corn or corn gluten
feed fed at 2.0% of body weight. Dietary
treatments included roughage plus corn, roughage
plus corn gluten feed, limit-fed corn, limitfed
corn with added Smartamine®-ML (providing
10 g/day ruminally protected lysine), limitfed
corn gluten feed, and limit-fed corn gluten
feed with added Smartamine. Adding
Smartamine-ML to the diet did not improve
performance significantly compared to
unsupplemented groups (P>.30). Limit-fed
diets containing corn and corn gluten feed
resulted in more efficient growth than the respective
roughage-based treatments (P<.01).
Limit-fed gluten feed diets resulted in gains that
were approximately 88% of that with the cornbased
diets. Performance was not different for
corn and corn gluten feed when added to
roughage-based diets.
