Grain is often a more economical source of dietary energy than forage. The objective of this Univ. of Idaho study was to evaluate the effects of substituting barley for forage on growth and reproduction of heifer calves. Forty crossbred heifers (701 lb) were allotted to four dietary treatments: 1) conventional forage; 2) forage with barley provided in the AM; 3) same as treatment 2 except that barley was fed in the PM; and 4) barley fed in the AM as a pressed pellet. In all treatments, heifers were fed amounts of their diets to provide equivalent levels of energy so as to limit avg. daily gain to 1.6 lb/day. After 105 days, heifers were comingled, fed a common diet, estrus synchronized and bred AI upon detection of estrus.

There were no significant differences among treatments in body condition score, number of corpora lutea at the time of second prostaglandin injection, or serum progesterone. Furthermore, there were no differences among treatments in pregnancy rate. The authors concluded these results indicate that substituting barley for forage in limit-feeding systems is a feasible method of meeting dietary energy requirements without jeopardizing reproduction (Szasz et al. 200. J. Anim. Sci. 88 [Suppl. 1]: Abstract T168).