Table 5.

Feeding behavior of beef steers offered a steam-flaked corn-based finishing diet with or without bacterial direct-fed microbial mixtures

	Treatment1				Phase			F-test			Contrasts
Item	Control	A	B	SEM1	Day 106	Day 113	SEM1	Trt	Phase	Trt × phase	CTL vs. A	CTL vs. B
Activity, min/d
Ruminating	161	168	153	6.30	151	171	4.40	0.23	<0.01	0.57	0.44	0.35
Eating	80	86	83	4	78	87	2.75	0.4	<0.01	0.37	0.18	0.5
Chewing2	241	254	235	7	229	258	5.23	0.17	<0.01	0.33	0.19	0.59
Drinking	16	17	16	2	16	16	1.40	0.74	0.9	0.44	0.85	0.58
Active	136	146	136	10	133	146	9.28	0.35	<0.01	0.21	0.2	0.97
Resting	1,047	1,024	1,053	16	1062	1020	13.72	0.11	<0.01	0.74	0.11	0.67
Rumination min/kg of intake
DM	15	15	14	0.7	14	16	0.5	0.45	<0.01	0.68	0.42	0.66
OM	16	16	15	0.7	15	17	0.5	0.43	<0.01	0.68	0.41	0.65
NDF	82	85	82	3.8	78	88	2.8	0.74	<0.01	0.70	0.56	0.88
ADF	243	246	231	11.1	225	255	7.9	0.58	<0.01	0.67	0.83	0.44
HEM	125	131	126	5.9	119	135	4.2	0.72	<0.01	0.72	0.44	0.86
Rumination min/kg of digestible intake
DM	19	19	18	0.9	18	20	0.7	0.53	<0.01	0.70	0.71	0.46
OM	19	20	18	0.9	18	20	0.7	0.49	<0.01	0.70	0.58	0.53
NDF	166	151	163	9.9	150	170	7.9	0.39	<0.01	0.79	0.20	0.81
ADF	541	478	487	32.7	471	532	24.4	0.25	<0.01	0.67	0.13	0.18
HEM	239	223	246	14.8	221	251	11.9	0.37	<0.01	0.85	0.33	0.68
Eating min/kg of intake
DM	7	8	8	0.4	7	8	0.3	0.34	<0.01	0.39	0.15	0.32
OM	8	8	8	0.4	8	9	0.3	0.33	<0.01	0.39	0.15	0.33
NDF	40	44	44	2.1	40	45	1.6	0.34	<0.01	0.39	0.22	0.19
ADF	119	126	125	6.1	117	130	4.6	0.65	<0.01	0.36	0.39	0.49
HEM	61	67	68	3.2	62	69	2.4	0.21	<0.01	0.40	0.16	0.11
Eating min/kg of digestible intake
DM	9	10	10	0.5	9	10	0.4	0.62	<0.01	0.36	0.35	0.49
OM	9	10	10	0.5	9	10	0.4	0.52	<0.01	0.37	0.27	0.44
NDF	83	77	88	5.9	78	87	4.8	0.26	<0.01	0.28	0.42	0.40
ADF	270	247	263	20.2	245	275	15.1	0.63	<0.01	0.32	0.35	0.78
HEM	119	114	133	8.8	116	128	7.2	0.12	<0.01	0.28	0.57	0.15
Chewing min/kg of intake 3
DM	22	23	22	0.9	21	24	0.6	0.35	<0.01	0.43	0.20	0.94
OM	23	25	23	0.9	22	25	0.7	0.34	<0.01	0.43	0.20	0.96
NDF	123	129	126	4.8	118	133	3.5	0.59	<0.01	0.45	0.31	0.66
ADF	362	372	356	14.0	342	385	10.1	0.66	<0.01	0.39	0.58	0.74
HEM	186	198	194	7.4	181	204	5.4	0.44	<0.01	0.48	0.21	0.39
Chewing min/kg of digestible intake 2
DM	28	29	28	1.1	27	30	0.9	0.57	<0.01	0.40	0.47	0.76
OM	29	30	28	1.2	27	31	0.9	0.48	<0.01	0.42	0.34	0.87
NDF	248	228	251	14.4	228	257	11.7	0.28	<0.01	0.35	0.20	0.85
ADF	811	725	750	49.0	717	808	36.4	0.33	<0.01	0.25	0.15	0.30
HEM	358	337	379	21.6	336	379	17.7	0.18	<0.01	0.41	0.34	0.36
Drinking min/kg of intake
DM	1	2	1	0.1	1	1	0.1	0.73	0.88	0.48	0.55	0.88
OM	2	2	2	0.2	2	2	0.1	0.72	0.88	0.48	0.55	0.87
NDF	8	9	8	0.8	8	8	0.7	0.87	0.87	0.47	0.64	0.98
ADF	24	25	23	2.4	24	24	2.1	0.84	0.88	0.48	0.80	0.73
HEM	12	13	13	1.2	13	13	1.1	0.84	0.86	0.47	0.57	0.83
Drinking min/kg of digestible intake
DM	2	2	2	0.2	2	2	0.2	0.81	0.94	0.45	0.80	0.70
OM	2	2	2	0.2	2	2	0.2	0.79	0.94	0.45	0.71	0.75
NDF	17	15	16	1.7	16	16	1.5	0.74	0.88	0.36	0.45	0.82
ADF	54	48	49	5.7	51	50	4.7	0.59	0.81	0.34	0.35	0.42
HEM	24	22	24	2.6	24	23	2.2	0.76	0.92	0.36	0.55	0.93

¹(1) Control (no DFM, lactose carrier only); (2) treat-A (L. animalis, P. freudenreichii, B. subtilis, and B. licheniformis), at 1:1:1:3 ratio, respectively; totaling 6 × 10⁹ CFU (50 mg)/animal-daily minimum; and (3) treat-B, the same DFM combination, but with doses at 1:1:3:1 ratio. Bacterial counts were ~30% greater than the minimum expected.

²SEM, standard error of the mean (n = 16 pens/treatment).

³Chewing activities are calculated by adding time spent eating and time spent ruminating.