Tag Archives: Nutrition
Mineral imbalances need to be considered in cattle deaths
Texas A&M AgriLife offers expertise, assistance in livestock mineral toxicity, testing By Susan Himes susan.himes@ag.tamu.edu Ranchers need to keep in mind that the wrong quantities of minerals can be dangerous or even deadly to cattle, said experts from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. When it comes to cattle and minerals, what works for a rancher 700 miles away may actually work better for you than what works for a neighbor 7 miles down the road; it all depends on what is in your soil, supplements, feed, forage and… Read More →
Brahman-type cattle may require less nitrogen; feeding them accordingly could reduce nitrogen emissions
Texas A&M AgriLife study to identify differences in nitrogen metabolism between primary cattle subspecies By Kay Ledbetter 806-677-5608 | skledbetter@ag.tamu.edu A recently funded Texas A&M AgriLife study will determine differences in nitrogen requirements between Brahman type cattle and other cattle. Measuring these differences may allow cattle producers to reduce the protein in cattle diets by allowing for precise diet formulations. “Implementation of precision diet formulation in cattle diets can be the answer to producing a more affordable beef with a smaller environmental impact,” said Tryon Wickersham, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Research,… Read More →
Baling decisions, storage can reduce waste
Management decisions, equipment maintenance and proper storage can have a big impact on waste and efficiency when baling hay. Andy McCorkill, a University of Missouri livestock specialist, says producers should tailor bale size to their facilities and animals, but overall bigger bales are more efficient. “The larger diameter bales, you’ll have less loss,” he says. “Smaller bales, you have basically two times the surface area exposed for the same amount of hay.” Jason Banta, an Extension beef specialist with Texas A&M University, says it is important to get… Read More →
Beef’s greatest talent is protein upcycling
By Lacey Newlin, 580-748-1892, lnewlin@hpj.com “There are some really highly educated people out there who are actively against the beef industry,” said Tryon Wickersham, associate professor of animal nutrition at Texas A&M University. “I don’t think there is going to be anything we can do to change that. I think they will be against everything we do, no matter how we do it, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t mount a defense or stop educating the consumers about the value we bring to their plates.” Wickersham spoke recently… Read More →
2018 ANSC Brazil Study Abroad: Comparative Ruminant Production
Writers: Jordan Adams and Madeline Rivera It is every college student’s dream to have the opportunity to participate in a study abroad. Visit a foreign country, learn a different language, experience another culture, make new friends, and learn something that we never knew about ourselves. During the summer of 2018, nine animal science students and one biomedical science student had the opportunity to study abroad in Brazil. The objective of the study abroad was to compare ruminant production schemes in the northeastern and southeastern regions of Brazil to… Read More →
Epigenetic Programming of Heifer Puberty Through Perinatal Nutrition
Nationally and internationally, research on the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) has taken the old saying “you are what you eat” to levels of importance that even its originator, nutritionist Victor Lindlahr, never imagined. The DOHaD hypothesis, set forth originally by epidemiologist David Barker, was the first to suggest a link between prenatal nutrition and late-onset coronary heart disease in humans. We now know that a variety of developmental and health-related outcomes can result from changes in the character of the maternal and postnatal environment, including… Read More →
How to get the most out of your limited hay supply
With the possibility of a dry spring leading to an even drier summer, getting the most out of your hay is critical. By Larry Stalcup Ranchers in a big swath of the Southwest and High Plains were in varying levels of drought; some have gone nearly five months with no measurable rain or snow. Fire danger is critical. With those conditions, ranchers can only make good winter forage go so far without depending heavily on hay. But poor hay quality, storage and feeding practices can easily cut into an already tight profit potential. “The… Read More →
Cattle Are “Up-Cyclers”
By: John Maday Among all the discussion about efficiency and sustainability in food production, beef’s critics often leave out a critical point—cattle eat things we cannot. They turn grass, corn stalks, wheat straw and byproducts such as distillers’ grains and cottonseed meal into high-quality protein for human consumption. While it also is true cattle eat products such as corn and soybean meal, which could be used in human diets, analysis indicates beef has a good story to tell regarding the ratio of human-edible nutrients invested to human-edible nutrients… Read More →
Second edition of The Ruminant Nutrition System published
The first edition of The Ruminant Nutrition System: An Applied Model for Predicting Nutrient Requirements and Feed Utilization in Ruminants was published in October 2016. Since then we have received much positive feedback, which has encouraged us to revise and expand it. In this second edition, we have updated concepts and added new information, clarified and enhanced the discussions of important topics, included new and improved and standardized existing graphics and illustrations, rearranged some of the text, and included indexes for subjects and authors. Although we believe this second edition… Read More →
Wu publishes Principles of Animal Nutrition book
Animals are biological transformers of dietary matter and energy into high-quality foods (e.g., meats, eggs and milk) for human consumption, as well as raw materials such as wool and leather for clothing and accessories for humans. Through biotechnological techniques, animals are also employed to produce enzymes and proteins to treat a wide array of human diseases. Mammals, birds, fish, and shrimp possess both common and divergent metabolic pathways for their maintenance and adaptations, but all of them need food to survive, grow, develop, and reproduce. As an interesting,… Read More →