The use of corn silage in diets for beef cattle of different genotype

The study was carried out in a sample of 406 commercial beef farms located in the Po Valley in which corn silage (CS) was included in the diet fed during the finishing period, Each farm was assigned to one class based on the cattle genotype and the results of this partition were the following: Charolaise (35%), Limousine (16%), French Crossbreds (35%) and Dual Purpose breeds (14%). Corn silage represented more than 33% of total dry matter of the diets of Charolaise, French Crossbreds and Dual Purpose cattle while its inclusion was significantly lower in the Limousine class (29.0% of total dietary dry matter). The decision about the amount of CS to be included in the diet has shown to be independent from the silage quality which, however, resulted satisfactory for all classes of cattle genotypes. The analysis of the chemical composition of the diets showed similar results for the four classes and therefore diet formulation seemed not to aim at the fulfilment of the real nutritive requirements of all the animals and of the Dual Purpose class ones in particular.