Cattle fattening, feed efficiency

The present study evaluated the effects of supplementing VM in grazing cattle during the rearing phase on performance and carcass quality of beef cattle in the finishing phase. Two experiments with a randomized block design were conducted in consecutive years to contrast two post-weaning supplementation strategies using VM at 45 mg/100 kg body weight (BW). In the first year, treatments were protein supplement in the dry season and mineral supplement in the rainy season versus the addition of VM both in the protein and mineral supplements...

Beef industry needs alternative feeding strategies to enhance both economic and environmental sustainability. Among these strategies, adjusting the diet dynamically according to the change of nutritional requirements (multiphase diet) has demonstrated its economic and environmental benefits in pig production systems. Therefore, this retrospective study aims to assess, through simulation, the theoretical economic and environmental benefits of introducing a multiphase diet for crossbreed bulls feeding (one or more diet changes)...

Several studies tried to identify digestive determinants of individual variation in feed efficiency between fattening bulls, because of their importance for breeding and management strategies. Most studies focused on single traits or single diet. Little is known about diet-dependent differences in digestive determinants and on their relative importance in distinguishing divergent residual feed intake (RFI) bulls. This research aimed (i) to identify digestive traits that differed between bulls diverging in RFI and fed a maize silage- or a grass silage-based diets; (ii) to highlight the relationships between RFI and digestive traits, and (iii) to explore the hierarchy among digestive traits in discriminating RFI divergent bulls...

Protein turnover has been associated to residual feed intake (RFI) in beef cattle. However, this relationship may be confounded by feeding level and affected by the composition of the diet being fed. Our aim was to assess postmortem the protein metabolism signalling pathways in skeletal muscle and liver of 32 Charolais young bulls with extreme RFI phenotypes. Bulls were fed two contrasting diets during the whole fattening period but were subjected to a similar and single nutritional stimulus, induced by their respective concentrate, just prior to slaughter...

Following a request from the European Commission, EFSA was asked to deliver a scientific opinion on the safety and efficacy of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol monohydrate produced with Saccharomyces cerevisiae CBS 146008 as a nutritional feed additive for all ruminants. The additive is already authorised for use with chickens for fattening, turkeys for fattening, other poultry and pigs. The Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP) concluded that the additive does not give raise to any safety concern regarding the production strain...

The agro-pasture ecotone is distributed all around the world. In these areas, the productive land forces are decreasing, and due to the irrational economic activities and the vulnerable ecological environment in these regions occurs land degradation. This study focuses on the effect of two different fattening approaches of beef cattle and output from the economic point of view by using a cost-benefit analysis technique in the eastern agro-pasture ecotone of Inner Mongolia, China. This study considers the environmental, social, and economic costs as input factors and concludes that both fattening systems have different characteristics...

Bovine fecal microbiota is important for host health and its composition can be affected by various factors, such as diet, age, species, breed, regions, and environments. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of diet and gender on fecal microbiota in Korean native Hanwoo cattle. The 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of fecal microbiota was conducted from 44 Hanwoo cattle divided into four groups: (1) 11 heifers fed an oat hay plus total mixed ration (TMR) diet for breeding (HOTB), (2) 11 heifers fed an early fattening TMR diet (HEFT), (3) 11 steers fed the early fattening TMR diet (SEFT), and (4) 11 steers fed the late fattening TMR diet (SLFT)...

In the current economic and environmental context, the selection of livestock phenotypes combining high feed efficiency (FE) and low greenhouse gas emissions is interesting. This study aimed to quantify methane (CH4 ) emissions and other gas flows (carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and dihydrogen (H2 ) emissions, oxygen (O2 ) consumption) in growing bulls fed with two contrasting diets in order to (i) evaluate the persistence of individual variability in gas flows through time, and (ii) assess the inter-individual relationship between gas flows and FE across diets...

Protein metabolism and body composition have been identified as major determinants of residual feed intake (RFI) in beef cattle fed high-starch fattening diets. This study aimed to evaluate if these two identified RFI determinants in beef cattle are the same across two contrasting silage-based diets. During two consecutive years, an 84-day feed efficiency test (Test A) immediately followed by a second 112-day feed efficiency test (Test B) was carried out using a total of 100 animals offered either one of two diets (either corn silage- or grass silage-based) over 196 days...

Muddy pens can negatively affect welfare and performance of feedlot beef cattle. In some regions with temperate weather, plastic greenhouse covers, above the entire pens are used to fatten cattle in a clean and dry environment. The objective of this research was to investigate effects of greenhouse roofed pens on beef cattle feedlot performance in temperate weather. Data were collected from a feedlot located in Central Mexico between 2016 and 2019. The study included 1,062 closeouts of pens with 68,305 crossbred bulls fed in pens with or without a greenhouse roof...

Pulmonary hypertension is a noninfectious disease of cattle at altitudes > 1524 m (5,000 ft). Mean pulmonary arterial pressures (PAP) are used as an indicator for pulmonary hypertension in cattle. High PAP cattle (≥50 mmHg) entering the feedlot at moderate elevations have lower feed efficiency as compared to low PAP cattle (< 50 mmHg). The impact of pulmonary arterial pressure on mitochondrial function, oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) protein abundance, and meat color was examined using longissimus lumborum (LL) from high (98 ± 13 mmHg; n = 5) and low (41 ± 3 mmHg; n = 6) PAP fattened Angus steers (live weight of 588 ± 38 kg) during early postmortem period (2 and 48 h) and retail display (days 1 to 9), respectively...

Soybean meal is the most important protein source in beef cattle feeding. The research of alternative protein sources to replace soy use, avoiding negative effects on in vivo performance and on the product's quality, is an important issue. In this context, cardoon represents a non-OGM resilient crop that can be cultivated in marginal lands for extracting its seed oil (utilized for biodiesel and biodegradable bioplastic production) and whose and the residual meal from its seed oil (utilized for biodiesel and biodegradable bioplastic production) could be a suitable by-product for animal feeding, due to its fairly high protein content...

Residual feed intake (RFI) is one of the preferred traits for feed efficiency animal breeding. However, RFI measurement is expensive and time-consuming and animal ranking may depend on the nature of the diets. We aimed to explore RFI plasma biomarkers and to unravel the underlying metabolic pathways in yearling bulls fed either a corn-silage diet rich in starch (corn diet) or a grass-silage diet rich in fiber (grass diet). Forty-eight extreme RFI animals (Low-RFI, n = 24, versus High-RFI, n = 24, balanced per diet) were selected from a population of 364 Charolais bulls and their plasma was subjected to a targeted LC-MS metabolomic approach together with classical metabolite and hormonal plasma analyses...

The effect of a nutraceutical mixture, based on live yeast (LY), mannan oligosaccharides (MOS) and organic selenium (Se) on health status, as well as immune functionality and growth performance in the fattening of newly received beef cattle, was evaluated. A total of 1036 Charolaise heifers were allocated into two experimental groups: (i) control group, without any nutraceutical support ( n = 487; initial weight = 325 ± 21 kg); and (ii) treatment group, supplementation during the first 30 days, with LY (5 g/head/day), organic Se (3 mg/head/day), and MOS (10 g/head/day) ( n = 549; initial weight = 323 ± 23 kg)...

The effects of heated drinking water on growth performance and rumen functionality in fattening beef cattle during winter were evaluated. Newly received Charolaise bulls ( n = 224) were allocated to two experimental groups: (i) water at room temperature (RTW) (weight 408 ± 34 kg); (ii) constantly heated water (25 °C) (HW) (weight 405 ± 38 kg). Growth performances, feed intake, feed conversion rate, water intake and carcass characteristics were evaluated. Internal reticuloruminal wireless boluses were used to collect rumen pH and temperature values every 10 min...

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of feeding high and low concentrate diets on feed intake and feed efficiency, the morphological characteristics of the rumen papillae, and meat quality of Holstein steers fattened under hot climate conditions in Oman. Ten male Holstein calves, of 5 months of age, were selected for the experiment. The animals were fed concentrate and Rhodes grass hay and were divided into two groups of high concentrate (HC, n = 5) and low concentrate diets (LC, n = 5), in which their feed intake, weight gain, and feed efficiency were evaluated across three growing periods...

Food of animal origin accounts for >90% of the overall human exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Food regulatory maximum levels help to control this exposure, but bovine meat has been found to be prone to exceed those occasionally. In order to ensure the chemical safety of bovine meat, the aim was to explore the dependency of the bioconcentration (BCF) and biotransfer (BTF) factor, and assimilation efficiency (AE) of PCBs on carcass lipid proportion and growth rate of beef cattle. Eleven bulls were fattened for 293 days with three different diets (7...

The yak rumen microflora has more efficient fiber-degrading and energy-harvesting abilities than that of low-altitude cattle; however, few studies have investigated the effects of dietary energy levels on the rumen bacterial populations and the relationship between rumen bacteria and the intramuscular fatty acid profile of fattening yaks. In this study, thirty yaks were randomly assigned to three groups. Each group received one of the three isonitrogenous diets with low (3.72 MJ/kg), medium (4.52 MJ/kg), and high (5...

Ruminants fed high-forage diets usually have a low feed efficiency, and their performances might be limited by methionine (Met) supply. However, the INRA feeding system for growing cattle do not give recommendation for this amino acid (AA). This study aimed to assess the effects of Met-balanced diets on animal performance and N metabolism in young bulls fed high-forage diets formulated at or above protein requirements. Four diets resulting from a factorial arrangement of two protein levels (Normal [13.5% CP] vs High [16...

Sub-acute ruminal acidosis (SARA) can reduce the production efficiency and impair the welfare of cattle, potentially in all production systems. The aim of this study was to characterise measurable postmortem observations from divergently managed intensive beef finishing farms with high rates of concentrate feeding. At the time of slaughter, we obtained samples from 19 to 20 animals on each of 6 beef finishing units (119 animals in total) with diverse feeding practices, which had been subjectively classified as being high risk (three farms) or low risk (three farms) for SARA on the basis of the proportions of barley, silage and straw in the ration...