Intake, growth, feed efficiency, carcass characteristics and selected meat quality traits of beef cattle offered a barley-based concentrate with increasing levels of palm kernel expeller meal

Two experiments were carried out to determine the effects of partial replacement of rolled barley (+soya bean meal) with palm kernel expeller meal (PK) - 0, 100, 200, 300 and 400 g/kg fresh weight - in the concentrate, offered for 70 days as a 3.0 kg DM supplement to grass silage (Experiment 1) or ad libitum (Experiment 2), on intake, growth, feed efficiency (Experiments 1 and 2), carcass traits and meat quality characteristics (Experiment 2) of steers. In Experiment 1, there was a tendency for a linear decrease in total DM intake as inclusion of PK increased, but live weight gain was unaffected. In Experiment 2, inclusion of PK had no effect on total DM intake but there was a linear decrease in live weight gain and slaughter weight, and a linear increase in feed conversion ratio, as PK inclusion increased. There was a tendency for a linear decrease in carcass weight as inclusion of PK increased. Concentrate treatment did not affect subcutaneous fat or M. Longissimus dorsi muscle colour, but had a minor negative effect on muscle fatty acid composition in terms of human nutrition. In conclusion, inclusion of PK had no impact on animal growth when the concentrate was offered as a supplement to grass silage, but negatively impacted growth-related performance when it was offered ad libitum. Inclusion of PK had no commercial impact on muscle and fat colour, and did not affect the total saturated fatty acid concentration in muscle when the concentrate was offered ad libitum.