Efficacy of chromium-yeast supplementation for growing beef steers

This experiment was conducted to determine the efficacy of feeding chromium yeast to growing beef steers. Animal growth, gain efficiency, and blood glucose kinetics were determined in 24 beef steers (initial body weight=253 ±4 kg) fed a corn silage-based diet supplemented with 0 (control), 100, 200, or 400 μg chromium from high-chromium yeast/kg of diet dry matter. Intravenous glucose tolerance tests (IVGTT) and intravenous insulin challenge tests (IVICT) were conducted at 3 and 6 weeks of chromium-yeast supplementation. There were minimal effects on plasma glucose kinetics during IVGTT and IVICT. There were tendencies for glucose clearance rate to increase (p=0.16) and half-life to decrease (p=0.14) during IVICT. However, chromium-yeast supplementation had no effect (p>0.24) on ADG and gain efficiency, suggesting that chromium-yeast supplementation to unstressed growing calves may not be beneficial.