Nutrient requirement for maintenance and nutritional changes of the Hanwoo steers in early-fattening stage under heat stress

Four early-fattening Hanwoo steers weighing $247{\pm}13.5kg$ were used within a $4{\times}4$ Latin square design to establish a nutrient requirement for maintenance and to investigate nutritional changes in the steers under heat stress condition. The steers were fed four different energy level diets: 100% (control) and 100%, 115% and 130% of total digestible nutrients (TDN) requirement of the early-fattening Hanwoo steers for maintenance based on the Korean Feeding Standard for Hanwoo. The steers in the control were housed with no stress (temperature $24^{\circ}C$ and humidity 60%), whereas the steers in the other groups were under heat stress (temperature $30^{\circ}C$ and humidity 70%). True digestibilities of dry matter (DM) and other nutrients were not significantly (p > 0.05) affected by heat stress (i.e., control vs T100). This may be the result of a lower DM intake than that of the Korean feeding standard due to the establishment of the nutrients requirement under heat stress. Heat stress and different energy intake levels did not affect the blood metabolite concentrations. Average daily gain (ADG) for T100 (-69.6 g) was lower than that of the control (-44.6 g, numerically), T115 (44.6 g, p < 0.05) and T130 (83.3 g, p < 0.05), respectively. Based on the ADG and TDN intake, the equation (Y = 0.1814X + 111.5) for the TDN requirement of the early fattening Hanwoo steers for maintenance was calculated, indicating that 11.5% of TDN requirement for maintenance under heat stress may be additionally supplied.