The evaluation of two extreme types of Angus steers

The purpose of this experiment was to evaluate the performance of two extreme types of Angus steers grown and finished on two common Tennessee systems. Forty animals were put on pasture; half Good-grade and half X-grade; twenty animals were put into the drylot; half Good-grade and half X-grade. One system included a winter pasture phase, a spring-summer pasture phase, and a finishing phase. The other system consisted of a drylot silage phase and a finishing phase. During the winter, the steers grazed their respective pastures of fescue and clover. The animals grazed their spring-summer pasture with no supplemental feed. At the end of the pasture phase, the animals were brought inside and finished on a completely mixed ration. The drylot steers were grown on com silage during the roughage phase and finished on a high corn ration with 15 pounds of corn silage per day. One pound of protein supplement (cottonseed-meal) was fed per 8 pounds of corn. Results of this study showed that Good-grade animals made higher total gains and higher average daily gains during the spring-summer pasture phase. Gains and average daily gains for the winter and finishing phase were non-significantly different between types. Results for the drylot system, indicated that X-grade animals did better than the Good-grade animals during the high silage period but the differences were not statistically significant (P < 0.10). Gains and average daily gains for the finishing phase were not significantly different. Differences in carcass means were non-significant for steers grown and finished on both systems.