GROWING STEERS WITH RYE-CONTAINING MIXED FODDERS
Concentrated feed plays an important role in balancing ruminant diets in terms of energy, protein, minerals and biologically active substances. Cereal grains are an indispensable component of feed concentrates for farm animals. Rye occupies a special place among cereal crops as components of mixed fodders. Despite the fact that rye is a very common cereal crop in the Non-Black Earth zone of the Russian Federation, it has not yet found wide application in the compound feed industry. Rye not suitable for food purposes can be used for the production of mixed fodder, but it is quite suitable for feeding farm animals. To prove scientifically the norms of rye introduction into the composition of mixed fodders in order to expand the possibility of its use in feeding growing steers is of current interest today. For carrying out the experiment four groups of growing steers have been formed and four recipes of mixed fodder-concentrates with various rates of rye introduction (0, 20, 30, 40 %) have been developed. The fulfilled researches show that mixed fodders prepared in accordance with the developed recipes allow balancing rations of young cattle grown for meat in accordance with detailed norms of feeding of agricultural animals with a comparatively low specific weight of concentrated fodders. Inclusion of rye in the composition of mixed fodders from 20 to 40% does not reduce the balance of the diet of animals of experimental groups as compared with the control. The gross and average daily gain of live weight did not differ significantly between the steers of the first three groups. The animals from the fourth group fed with a mixed fodder containing 40% rye yielded to the control animals by 5.6 kg of gross weight gain and by 43 g or 4.9% on the average daily gain. At the same time, 5.87-6.03 EFU were used per 1 kg of live weight gain.