Effects of feeding Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product to feedlot finishing steers on growth performance and carcass traits

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product (SCFP) supplementation and to compare to common in-feed antibiotics on growth performance and carcass traits of finishing beef steers. Seventy-five Angus steers were blocked by body weight (BW) then randomly assigned within block to 1 of 5 treatments (15 head/treatment) for a 112-d feeding period. The treatments were: (1) CON (without supplementation); (2) ANT (antibiotics; 330 mg monensin + 110 mg tylosin/d); (3) LOW (12 g); (4) MED (15 g); and (5) HIGH (18 g SCFP/d). Steers were fed ad libitum a diet containing 10% barley silage and 90% barley concentrate (dry matter [DM] basis). Intake of DM, final BW and average daily gain (ADG) did not differ among treatments, whereas, feed efficiency tended to linearly improve with increasing SCFP doses. Proportion of severely abscessed livers tended to be lower with LOW or HIGH SCFP and ANT than CON. These results suggest that feeding SCFP to feedlot cattle may potentially improve feed efficiency and liver health.