Table 1.
Ingredients, proximate composition and daily cost of the ration (DRC) of diets (low protein, LP; control, CON) fed to the young Charolais bulls during backgrounding, transition, growing (P1) and finishing (P2) phases at Rovigo Province, Italy.
| Ingredients and Composition | Backgrounding (BKG) and Transition (TST) Diet | Growing and Finishing Diets | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BKG | TST | CON | LP | |||
| P1 | P2 | P1 | P2 | |||
| Ingredients (% of DM) | ||||||
| Maize silage | 18.9 | 12.2 | 22.4 | 22.2 | 23.6 | 23.4 |
| Pressed beet pulps | 10.9 | 9.98 | 17.2 | 17.8 | 17.0 | 17.8 |
| Straw | - | - | 6.30 | 4.90 | 6.60 | 5.10 |
| Meadow hay | 14.1 | 9.08 | ||||
| Maize meal | - | 14.5 | 20.1 | 25.1 | 23.4 | 27.4 |
| Weat bran | 25.8 | 21.3 | 15.7 | 12.7 | 15.5 | 13.2 |
| Soybean meal | 20.1 | 23.9 | 10.5 | 10.0 | 5.80 | 5.50 |
| Vitamin and mineral mix | 10.2 | 9.04 | 7.80 | 7.30 | 8.05 | 7.55 |
| DRC (€/kg DM) | 0.212 | 0.213 | 0.197 | 0.198 | ||
| Proximate composition | ||||||
| DM (%) | 61.1 | 56.7 | 49.7 | 53.7 | 48.4 | 52.8 |
| CP (% of DM) | 14.1 | 14.0 | 14.9 | 14.7 | 13.6 | 13.4 |
| EE (% of DM) | 2.33 | 2.63 | 3.32 | 3.13 | 3.33 | 3.15 |
| NDF (% of DM) | 38.2 | 35.2 | 32.7 | 29.0 | 33.0 | 29.2 |
| Starch (% of DM) | 26.1 | 29.8 | 29.1 | 33.5 | 30.4 | 34.8 |
| ME (Mj/kg DM) | 10.8 | 10.0 | 10.8 | 11.1 | 10.8 | 11.1 |
DM: dry matter; CP: crude protein; EE: ether extract; NDF: neutral detergent fiber; ME: metabolizable energy.