Purina fermentation product supports feed efficiency in feedlot cattle.

 

Purina fermentation product supports feed efficiency in feedlot cattle.Feed costs are a constant consideration for cattle feeders. Improving feed efficiency, even by a small margin, can pay big dividends in the long run. “If cattle eat less and gain the same, it’s a nice advantage because you save on the amount you’re feeding. 

5The cattle industry has continually focused on improving feed efficiency through nutrition and genetics,” said Ron Scott, Ph.D., director of beef technical innovation with Purina Animal Nutrition. “Purina EfficienZ fermentation product is designed to help take things a step further.” 

The use of fermented feed is an age-long method to achieve feed efficiency and promote animal health.read 

 The new EfficienZ fermentation product is a non-nutritive feed additive available in select Purina supplements to support feed efficiency and help improve feed conversion in finishing cattle rations by optimizing rumen function.

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Manage mud to manage cattle health.

                 

Manage mud to maintain cattle health.

    

  

Significant presence of mud can increase energy requirements by as much as 30%. Wading through mud burns more calories, resulting in reduced gain for developing breeding stock and fed cattle, as well as reduced milk production for cows. Confounding things, cattle tend to eat less to avoid the extra effort to get to feed. On top of reduced performance, mud can have negative impacts on health, especially young calves. 

Mud clings to hair coats and makes it more difficult for the animal to regulate body temperatures, especially if nighttime temperatures dip below freezing. Pathogens also thrive in these conditions, creating continual exposure to calves. 

This occurs both directly because of the poor environment and indirectly when nursing from contaminated udders. Left unmanaged, excessive mud can also cause foot injuries and outbreaks of foot rot. 

 Four ways to manage mud to ensure cattle health. 

 1) Provide bedding. Multiple sources are available. When managed appropriately, manure and liquids tend to settle to the bottom of cornstalk bedding allowing for a drier surface. For feedlots and yearling cattle, it's recommended to provide 1 pound of bedding per day per inch of mud per head, while 4 pounds of bedding per day per inch of mud is needed for cow-calf pairs, with heavy bred females somewhere in the middle.

 2)Consider building a feeding pad. While a more expensive option, building a pad from packed gravel or lime with geotextile fabric provides a longer-term solution to managing mud. A concrete feeding area allows for easier cleaning and captures more manure nutrients for crop production. Both can be beneficial for reducing feed waste as well. 

 3) continue

How farming without soil can reduce methane emission in cattle.

Cattle are responsible for 20% of the world's green house gas,contributing to climate change experienced worldwide. 

The methane emission stems from their digestion model,wherein feed ingested are digested by gut microbes in rumen resulting in large amounts of the methane gas,the constant chewing ,regurgitation contributes to the burping and farting which releases the gas to the atmosphere. The change in diet of cattle to more easily digestible and metabolisable feed ensures less regurgitation,more absorption and less methane emission. 

 

Farming without soil also referred to as hydroponics refers to growing plants in nutrient rich media under controlled temperature and humidity to produce fresh fodder for animals,which are highly nutritious, easily digestible and free from pesticides. 

 Farming without soil can be used to grow food for man and fodder for livestock saving money,reducing water use and need for pesticides. Farming without soil can be used to grow wheat,sorghum, millet,corn and oats making a nutritious fodder for animals. Cattle fed with hydroponic fodder grow fast, produce more milk,beef and less gas. 

The animals have access to the full nutrients from the cereal or legume,the minerals protein and fat are liberated in the fodder making it a great alternative. 

  Cows normally have access to 20% of energy in the grain diet while with fodder system 95% of the energy is available for growth and reproductive health and performance. The short span of growth from seed to fodder within 7 days ensures that animals have fresh fodder all year round.  

 Farming without soil is ecofriendly because there is no pressure on the environment for the following reasons 1) limited land space is needed. 2) less amount of water is required to sprout the seeds. 3)reduction of carbon print on farms as no machinery like tractors are used. 4)fodder is highly digestible preventing excessive burping and farting thus reducing methane emission. 5) smart agriculture. Farming without soil = hydroponics is a form of #smart agriculture our #solution to #climate change.

Raising cattle on a candy diet.

Cattle rearing is a very lucrative business,but the high cost of feed has pushed many farmers to the extreme to look for an alternate source to break even. Cattle are ruminants and thus tend to thrive on forage,cereals amongst other supplements but to strike a balance the ration must be complete with representatives of all classes of food and water. 

 Water is very vital to growth and development of the cattle as well as support all the metabolic activities in the body. Cattle must be given cool,fresh water everyday which must be clean,odorless and colorless. The alternate options to cattle feed are candies,orange peels,potatoes,dried fruits,rice products amongst others.

 According to CNN,farmers tapped into the candy factory to augment the feed of cattle when corn prices soared,now prices have skyrocked and farmers are at the candy station. The sugar in the candy is source the farmers want for the cows,as they gain weight and even increases milk production. 

 The candy is mixed with other forms of cattle feed, but at a percentage of 3%. This is how a farmer uses the candy; a dairy farmer in Middlebury, Ind. feeds his 400 cows bits of candy, hot chocolate mix, crumbled cookies, breakfast cereal, trail mix, dried cranberries, orange peelings and ice cream sprinkles, which are blended into more traditional forms of feed, like hay.

 The farmer said that he goes over the feed menu every couple of weeks with a livestock nutritionist who advised him to cap the candy at 3% of a cow's diet. He said that the sugar in ice cream sprinkles increase milk production by three pounds per cow per day. Sugar also helps to fatten up beef cattle, according to livestock nutritionist Chuck Hurst, owner of Nutritech, Inc., in Carmen, Idaho, without any ill effects to the cow, or to the person consuming its meat or milk. He said that it's the sugar in the candy that's important, and that it provides "the same kind of energy as corn." source

Drug-resistant genes spread through environment, not meat products.

New findings show that traffic from humans to animals, and back to humans via the environment,is responsible for resistant genes and as such a new focus on tackling antibiotic resistance is proposed. 

In the first study to track antibiotic resistance in intensively-farmed beef, scientists discovered a "startling" lack of resistance genes in meat. Meanwhile, in soil and feces samples from cattle pens they found genes resistant to a powerful "last resort" class of antibiotics called carpabemens that aren't used in the livestock industry.

These genes may have jumped from humans or companion animals to livestock, or could even be present at low levels in the wider environment.

 Results published in eLife suggest researchers and policy-makers need to switch focus to combat the growing problem of drug-resistant bugs. A current focus for policy-makers is to reduce antibiotic use in livestock to curb the spread of drug-resistant bugs.


The team urges that traffic from humans to animals, and back to humans via the environment, should be a new focus for research. The lack of resistance genes in post-slaughter meat samples was a big surprise for the scientists, forcing them to rethink the view that it is only antibiotic use that increases resistance.

 Environmental routes of exposure are much harder to trace and have been largely overlooked by researchers and policy-makers. While many people never step foot on working farms, we are physically connected to agriculture via waste water run-off and wind borne particulates.

 The scientists suggest investigating wind patterns and water flow to see if, and how, resistant bacteria may be disseminated, and how far.

 The researchers opined that they may observe that such dissemination is very limited geographically, or we may find that resistant bacteria can travel long distances if they find the right currents or the right waterways. In either case, this would be very important information from a public health perspective.

 The researchers collected samples from 1,741 commercial cattle. The study started in feedlots, where intensively farmed cattle are moved after grazing. A feedlot consists of outdoor pens where cattle are fattened during their final months of life.

 Samples were also taken during slaughter and from market-ready products. No previous studies have tracked antimicrobial use and resistance right through the beef production process.

The team found no resistance genes to any bacteria in market-ready beef products. They did discover changes to antibiotic resistance genes in the guts of cattle during their time in the feedlot. The changes could be due to the use of antibiotics in feedlots but could also result from adjusting to a high-energy diet or from the cattle's maturation from adolescent to adult.