Effects of feeding beef animals

Pigeon peas are grown in many tropical countries to be used as a human food. Pigeon pea fits low-input agriculture, requiring no nitrogen fertilizer, tolerating acidic soils, having excellent drought tolerance and yielding 2,500 to 4,500 pounds per acre from no-till planting from May to August in actual field tests. Pigeon peas contain 21 to 24 percent crude protein and only 2 percent fat, and they are highly digestible and supply high quality protein giving them great potential as a supplemental feed for beef cattle. UGA animal and dairy scientists fed yearling beef heifers supplements including whole cotton seed, corn gluten feed, pigeon peas, corn and soybean meal as a control and free-choice corn silage in a feedlot. Yearling beef steers were fed the same supplements plus free-choice bermudagrass hay. Higher digestibility and increased average daily gains support the use of pigeon peas for supplementation. Low production costs of this high quality feed grain make pigeon peas a potentially important new crop for Georgia farmers and cattlemen.