Effects of adding Medicago sativa hay into Arachis hypogaea hay and cottonseed hull on production performance and cholesterol metabolism of crossbred cattle

16 crossbred cattle of Simmental cattleYanan cattle were used to investigate the effects of mixtures of Medicago sativa hay and Arachis hypogaea hay and cottonseed hull with different alfalfa hay biomass (0, 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 kg/d M.sativa hay) on production performance and cholesterol metabolism, and these cattle with the accordant years, quality, gender and health were randomly divided into four groups with four duplicates. This study showed that the mixtures of M.sativa hay and A.hypogaea hay and cottonseed hull significantly increased the daily gain of cattle by 20,80 and 30 g (P0.05), and serum alkaline phosphatase in the cattle fed with mixtures was significantly higher than that in the cattle fed with A.hypogaea hay and cottonseed hull (P0.05). The results of this study also indicated that the mixtures of M.sativa hay and A.hypogaea hay and cottonseed hull significantly increased the crude protein and ash content (P0.05) and decreased the crude fat in muscle of cattle. The serum, total cholesterol and glyceric acid in the meat of cattle fed with 5 and 7.5 g/d M.sativa hay extremely and significantly decreased (P0.01) when compared to that fed with A.hypogaea hay and cottonseed hull. The lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol in the meat of cattle fed with 5.0 and 7.5 g/d M.sativa hay was significantly lower than that fed with 2.5,7.5 g/d M.sativa hay(P0.05), however, The highdensity lipoprotein cholesterol in the meat of cattle was not different between cattle fed with mixtures and cattle fed with A.hypogaea hay and cottonseed hull.