This study investigated the performance and instrumental meat quality of finishing
beef steers offered grass silage (GS), grass silage:maize silage (GS:MS) and grass
silage:lupins/triticale silage (GS:LT). The lupins/triticale silage was grown as either two
separate crops in the same field and harvested together (LT1) or grown and harvested as a
mixture (LT2). The silages were offered to eighty continental cross beef steers, initial live
weight 530
±
47.7 kg and 18
±
1.6 months of age and were supplemented with 3 or 6 kg
concentrates fresh/head/d. Silage was fed ad libitum with the mixtures offered at a ratio
of 60 GS:40 maize silage (MS), LT1 or LT2 on a dry matter (DM) basis and concentrates
were offered once (3 kg) or twice (6 kg) daily on top of the silage. Animals were slaughtered
in three batches after 100, 117 and 124 d on experiment. The LT1 and LT2 produced
yields of 8.7 and 7.5 kg DM/ha and the silages were poorly fermented as demonstrated
by high ammonia-N concentration (182 and 173 g/kg total N), low lactic acid (9 g/kg DM)
and high pH (5.0 and 4.7). Silage type had no significant effect on slaughter live weight,
liveweight gain, carcass gain, forage DM intake (DMI), total DMI or feed efficiency expressed
as kg DMI/kg liveweight gain or kg DMI/kg carcass gain. Silage type had no effect on carcass
characteristics or instrumental meat quality. The results of this study demonstrate
that offering lupins/triticale silage in combination with high quality grass silage (D-value
greater than 700) at a ratio of 60 grass silage:40 LT1 or LT2 on a DM basis had no effect
on animal performance, carcass characteristics or meat quality parameters relative to high
quality grass silage offered alone or in combination with maize silage.