Explore all the information on
Beef Cattle Nutrition
Welcome to the page about Beef Cattle Nutrition of Engormix; a source of knowledge on Beef Cattle Nutrition.
Growth-promoting implants are a well-established technology in the beef business. For more than 30 years some of these products have been available to improve growth and feed efficiency in cattle. A great deal of the more recent product development has been with implants designed for use in feedlot steers and heifers. However, there are a few implant products that are approved for use and will effectively work in calves prior to the time of weaning. The use of all of the implant products...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Feeding programs for beef cows this winter may use higher levels of grain or grain byproducts because the amount of hay available is limited. Hay can be fed at as low as ½% of body weight each day, which converts to 6 or 7 pounds of hay daily, if the hay supply is extremely limited. It is more likely that hay will be fed at 1% of the body weight of cows, or more. Even at this level, though, grain or grain byproducts will be needed to provide a fair portion of the nutrition of the diet. Diets of...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
A champion steer is the product of good breeding, good management, correct feeding, and proper fitting and showing. You must begin a well-planned feeding program as early as possible to produce 4-H show steers successfully. What you feed is not as important as how you feed it, so long as you provide the essential nutrients. Begin feeding your baby calf as early as possible. Many calves will eat grain at 6 weeks of age. It is best to let your calf run in the pasture with its dam...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Cattle producers frequently seek low-cost feed alternatives, especially when traditional feeds are expensive. Many of these "alternative" feeds are by-products (or co-products) and waste products from the processing of various food and fiber crops, or crop residues. These alternative feeds can fit into a feeding program as the primary roughage, as a supplement to a regular ration, or as a replacement for part of the ration. Listed below are factors that one should keep in mind when...
Comments : 3
Recommendations: 0
Minerals are essential for proper bodily functions. Problems may arise when the feeds do not supply enough to meet the animal's requirements. This may occur because the feed is low in minerals, the availability of the mineral is low or another mineral or nutrient is interfering with the ability of the animal to absorb or utilize the mineral. Macro-Elements Macro-elements are those required in relatively large amounts. This group...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Meeting the basic nutrient requirements of beef cows is a key component of meeting cow herd production and profitability goals for the beef cattle enterprise. Adequate nutrition is vital for adequate cow reproduction, cow and calf health, and growth of all classes of cattle. Nutrient requirements of cattle change throughout the year based upon stage of the production cycle, age, sex, breed, level of activity, pest load, and environment. All of the previous factors mentioned have an additive...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
Slow or incomplete digestion of fibrous substrates often limits the overall digestive process in the rumen and can significantly influence animal performance in livestock production systems that use forages as a major component of the diet. As a result, many strategies have been developed to stimulate the digestion of the fibrous components in ruminant feeds. These have included the use of specific nutrients which stimulate fiber digestion, processing feeds to increase the rate and...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
The most common problems in bovine medicine are multi-factorial in nature. Beef cattle herds typically experience postnatal maladjustment syndrome, neonatal diarrhoea, respiratory problems, dermatological problems (mange), myopathies (skeletal and cardiac muscles, congenital myopathy of the tongue) and fertility problems. Such problems are best treated by prevention, which proves more economical and better preserves health. Vitamin and trace element deficiencies are frequently...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Nutritional deficiencies of selenium (Se) in ruminants result in whitemuscle disease (Muth et al., 1958), loss of glutathione peroxidase activity and selenoproteinW (Yeh et al., 1997), and suppression of immunity (Yamini and Mullaney, 1985). Newborn ruminants are dependent upon the dam for selenium transfer via the placenta or mammary gland. Because feeds grown in many areas of the world are deficient in selenium for livestock, selenium supplementation is often necessary. Methods...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Two levels of chromium (Cr) yeast, 0.2 ppm and 0.4 ppm, were fed in a typical feedlot ration to supply approximately 1.8 and 3.1 mg Cr per head per day to feedlot steers in a university research feedlot on the southern High Plains of Texas for 196 days. Average daily gain, dry matter intake and feed efficiency were not affected by the 0.2 ppm treatment; however, the 0.4 ppm treatment reduced average daily gain and dry matter intake while increasing the feed:gain ratio. Cattle...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
The use of enzymes in feedlot diets has not been evaluated extensively, and most of the research with high concentrate diets has been done with barley. Beauchemin et al. (1997) evaluated the addition of two enzyme mixtures that varied in the proportion of xylanase and cellulase activity to 95.1% concentrate feedlot diets based on either barley or corn. Feed efficiency for the overall finishing period was improved approximately 11% with a highxylanase activity enzyme treatment of barley...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Over the last two decades, our enhanced understanding of the role of yeast cultures in animal diets has resulted in the development of a group of scientifically proven supplements that enhance animal performance and improve animal health. Intense research efforts have attempted to understand the basic mechanisms, which account for the beneficial effects of yeast cultures in many groups of animals. However, the most successful basic research programs have examined the effects of yeast cultures...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Selenium (Se) is an essential nutrient for humans and livestock. Beef cattle have a general requirement of 0.1 mg/kg of selenium in the diet (NRC, 1996). Many regions of the United States have soils that are low in Se. Because forage and feedstuff Se concentrations vary with soil Se concentrations, the Se status of US cattle herds is highly variable. Across the country 18.2% of the cows and heifers have blood Se concentrations that are considered low or marginal (Dargatz and Ross,...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Selenium (Se) deficiency in grazing and forage-fed cattle is widespread in the United States as well as in other countries (Kubota et al., 1967; Carter et al., 1968; van Vleet, 1980). As an integral part of the enzyme glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), selenium functions to prevent oxidative damage to body tissues (Hoekstra, 1974). Also, selenium deficiencies can inhibit the immunoglobulin G (IgG) response to in vivo challenges with sheep red blood cells (Mulhern et al., 1985) and the...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Effects of vitamin E level and selenium supplement form on performance and carcass characteristics were evaluated in a completely randomized design involving 96 Angus crossbred steers (374 kg). Two sources of dietary selenium, sodium selenite and organic selenium (Sel-Plex selenium yeast, Alltech Inc.) added at 0.3 mg Se/kg and three levels of vitamin E (500, 250, and 125 IU/head/day) were evaluated over a 103 day finishing period. Steers were divided into six equal groups and fed diets based...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
The meat sector contributes some £5.5 billion or about 40% to the value of UK agricultural gross output. Of this total, beef accounts for approximately £2 billion by value. In the United Kingdom, over two-thirds of the agricultural land is suitable only as grassland. A large proportion of the grass is fed, either fresh or conserved, to beef cattle. Although grassland represents one of the cheapest feeds for beef production systems, there are inherent disadvantages associated with grass...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Beef and milk production in Argentina rely mainly on grasslands and improved pastures; and conserved forages or concentrates are fed to the animals generally when DM availability or nutrient content of pastures is insufficient to satisfy animal requirements. Among conserved forage alternatives, silage production is increasing because of its many advantages over other supplements including: • Less dependence on weather compared with hay. • Nutrient content maintained, similar...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Introduction Research over the last 30 years has demonstrated that the absorption of amino acids in the form of oligopeptides (principally di- to tri-peptides) constitutes the most quantitatively important form of amino acid uptake from digesta by gut epithelia (Matthews and Adibi, 1976; Steinhardt and Adibi, 1986; Matthews, 1991; Seal and Parker 1991; Webb et al., 1992; Koeln et al., 1993; Gardner, 1994) and physiologically important amounts from glomerular filtrate by...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
