Table 5.

Effects of including cotton byproducts in a finishing ration on the fecal score and fecal pH of crossbred feedlot steers

	Treatments1
Item	CON	CTN	SEM2	P-value
Fecal score3
Day 0	2.33	2.50	0.110	0.30
Day 14	3.03	3.06	0.182	0.91
Day 28	2.78	2.76	0.115	0.89
Day 56	3.19	2.93	0.087	0.03
Day 84	3.00	2.83	0.161	0.43
Day 112	3.06	2.88	0.103	0.18
Final3	3.06	2.95	0.100	0.26
Fecal score change5
Days 0 to 14	0.70	0.56	0.205	0.62
Days 14 to 28	−0.25	−0.30	0.247	0.88
Days 28 to 56	0.41	0.17	0.138	0.24
Days 56 to 84	−0.19	−0.09	0.136	0.63
Days 84 to 112	0.06	0.04	0.172	0.93
Days 112 to final	0.00	0.07	0.101	0.62
Days 0 to 28	0.45	0.26	0.128	0.32
Days 28 to final	0.28	0.19	0.159	0.63
Days 0 to final	0.73	0.45	0.157	0.21
Fecal pH
Day 0	8.14	8.18	0.048	0.54
Day 14	6.88	6.96	0.063	0.39
Day 28	6.82	6.97	0.075	0.09
Day 56	6.66	6.69	0.062	0.72
Day 84	6.74	6.72	0.064	0.80
Day 112	6.78	6.87	0.085	0.42
Final	6.80	6.88	0.083	0.48
Fecal pH change5
Days 0 to 14	−1.27	−1.22	0.098	0.81
Days 14 to 28	−0.06	−0.02	0.083	0.21
Days 28 to 56	−0.16	−0.28	0.107	0.40
Days 56 to 84	0.08	0.03	0.098	0.71
Days 84 to 112	0.04	0.16	0.096	0.10
Days 112 to final	0.02	0.01	0.115	0.96
Days 0 to 28	−1.31	−1.20	0.098	0.38
Days 28 to final	−0.02	0.09	0.120	0.64
Days 0 to final	−1.34	−1.29	0.077	0.71

¹Treatments included (DM basis): (CON) = 7% hay, 15% Sweet Bran, 67.25% rolled corn, 5% liquid supplement or (CTN) = 7% cotton gin trash, 15% whole cottonseed, 72.25% rolled corn. Both rations contained 5% dry supplement and 0.75% urea.

² n = 8 pens per treatment.

³Fecal score adapted from Ireland-Perry and Stallings (1992) and Woolsoncroft et al. (2018), with a greater score indicating a looser fecal consistency on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 representing a cow on dry hay and 5 being the consistency of water.

⁴Cattle were harvested in 2 groups: day 140 (n = 4 pens per treatment) and day 168 (n = 4 pens per treatment).

⁵The difference between collection periods; the later date was subtracted from the earlier date.