Effect of dietary trace mineral supplementation and a multi-element trace mineral injection on shipping response and growth performance of beef cattle

To examine the effect of trace mineral (TM) status and TM injection on growth performance and carcass characteristics in beef cattle, 40 steers were used in a growing and finishing study. Steers were stratified by weight (323 ± 14.8 kg) and assigned to 1 of 2 treatments for an 84-d depletion period: 1) a corn silage-based diet supplemented with Cu, Mn, Se, and Zn to meet or exceed NRC recommendations (CON), or 2) CON diet without supplemental Cu, Mn, Se, or Zn but supplemented with 300 mg Fe and 5 mg Mo/kg diet DM as dietary TM antagonists (DEF) to induce mild deficiencies. To mimic shipping stress, steers were shipped for 20 h on d 88 and were received back on d 89. On d 91 an equal number of steers from both dietary treatments were injected with sterilized saline (SAL) or Multimin 90 (MM; containing 15, 60, 10, and 5 mg/mL of Cu, Zn, Mn, and Se, respectively) at a dose of 1 mL/68 kg BW. Steers were fed a common finishing diet supplemented with 10 mg Cu, 20 mg Mn, 0.1 mg Se, and 30 mg Zn/kg diet DM for the 90-d repletion period. Steers were harvested 91 d postinjection and carcass data were collected. During the depletion period, diet did not affect BW, ADG, DMI, or G:F (P > 0.20). During the shipping period (defined as the time between 2-d consecutive weights on d 83 and 84 and d 90 and 91), DEF steers tended to lose more weight per day than CON steers (P = 0.06) and had lesser DMI (P = 0.03), suggesting that response to shipping stress may be modulated by TM status. During the repletion period, ADG of DEF + MM steers was greater (P = 0.03) compared with DEF + SAL and was not different (P = 0.92) among CON + MM and CON + SAL steers. There was no effect of diet or injection on HCW or dressing percentage (P > 0.20). Within the CON group, TM injection decreased yield grade (P = 0.03) but did not affect yield grade of DEF steers (P > 0.20). Steers given TM injection had a larger rib eye area (P = 0.04) regardless of previous diet. Interestingly, both diet and injection affected marbling scores (MS), where CON steers had greater MS than DEF steers (P = 0.01) and MM steers had greater MS than SAL steers (P = 0.04). These results indicate that adequate TM nutrition is essential for marbling development, during both the growing and finishing phases. Overall, an injectable mineral improved rib eye area and MS regardless of initial TM status and improved growth of mildly TM deficient steers.