Dataset Information

The Influence of Environmental Conditions on Intake Behavior and Activity by Feedlot Steers Fed Corn or Barley-Based Diets.

ABSTRACT: This study evaluated the influence of diet and environmental conditions on intake behavior and activity of feedlot steers. Feedlot rations used were comprised of a main concentrate: (1) corn or (2) barley. A GrowSafe system measured individual animal intake and behavior and HOBO accelerometers measured steer standing time. An Onset weather station collected on site weather data. Steer daily intake displayed a diet by temperature class interaction (p ≤ 0.05). Relative temperature change had no effect on variation in intake (p = 0.60); however, diet influenced variation of intake (p < 0.01), where corn-fed steers had a greater coefficient of variation (CV) than barley-fed steers (21.89 ± 1.46 vs. 18.72 ± 1.46%). Time spent eating (min d^-1) and eating rate (g min^-1) both displayed a diet by temperature class interaction (p ≤ 0.05). Diet did not affect steer lying activity (p ≥ 0.12), however, time spent lying (min d^-1) and frequency of lying bouts (bouts d^-1) increased on relatively cold days while the duration of lying bouts (min bout^-1; p < 0.01) decreased. Short-term environmental temperature changes interacted with diet influencing feedlot beef cattle intake behavior; however, they did not interact with basal diet in respect to steer activity.

SUBMITTER: DelCurto-Wyffels HM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8145294 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Influence of Environmental Conditions on Intake Behavior and Activity by Feedlot Steers Fed Corn or Barley-Based Diets.

DelCurto-Wyffels Hannah M HM Dafoe Julia M JM Parsons Cory T CT Boss Darrin L DL DelCurto Timothy T Wyffels Samuel A SA Van Emon Megan L ML Bowman Janice G P JGP

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI 20210427 5

This study evaluated the influence of diet and environmental conditions on intake behavior and activity of feedlot steers. Feedlot rations used were comprised of a main concentrate: (1) corn or (2) barley. A GrowSafe system measured individual animal intake and behavior and HOBO accelerometers measured steer standing time. An Onset weather station collected on site weather data. Steer daily intake displayed a diet by temperature class interaction (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.05). Relative temperature change ha ...[more]

PMID: 33925628

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Project description:High grain diets are fed to finishing beef cattle to maximize animal performance in a cost-effective manner. However, a small amount of roughage is incorporated in finishing diets to help prevent ruminal acidosis, although few studies have examined optimum roughage inclusion level in barley-based diets. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of roughage proportion in barley-based finishing diets on growth performance, feeding behavior, and carcass traits of feedlot cattle. Crossbred beef steers (n = 160; mean body weight ± SD, 349.7 ± 21.4 kg) were allocated to 20 pens that were assigned randomly to four dietary treatments (five pens of eight steers per treatment). The treatment diets contained barley silage at 0%, 4%, 8%, and 12% of dietary dry matter (DM). The remainder of the diets (DM basis) consisted of 80%, 76%, 72%, and 68% barley grain, respectively, 15% corn dried distiller's grains, 5% mineral and vitamin supplement, and 32 mg monensin/kg diet DM. The diets were fed as total mixed rations for ad libitum intake (minimum of 5% refusal) once per day. Cattle were weighed on 2 consecutive days at the start and end of the experiment and on 1 d every 3 wk throughout the experiment (124 d). Two pens for each treatment group were equipped with an electronic feeding system (GrowSafe Systems Ltd., Calgary, Alberta) to monitor feed intake and feeding behavior of individual cattle. The data for dry matter intake (DMI), average daily gain (ADG), gain:feed (G:F) ratio, and carcass traits were analyzed as a completely randomized design with fixed effect of barley silage proportion and pen replicate as experimental unit. Feeding behavior data were analyzed similarly, but with animal as experimental unit. Averaged over the study, DMI increased linearly (11.1, 11.3, 11.7, 11.8 kg/d; P = 0.001) as barley silage proportion increased from 0%, 4%, 8%, and 12% of DM, but ADG was not affected (carcass-adjusted,1.90, 1.85, 1.87, 1.89 kg/d; P ≥ 0.30). Consequently, G:F ratio decreased linearly (carcass-adjusted, 168.9, 163.8, 158.5, 160.6 g/kg DMI; P = 0.023). When averaged over the study, proportion of barley silage in the diet had no linear or quadratic effects (P > 0.10) on meal frequency, duration of meals, intermeal duration, or meal size, but eating rate decreased linearly with increasing silage proportion (P = 0.008). There was no diet effect on liver abscesses (P ≥ 0.92), and effects on carcass characteristics were minor or nonexistent. We conclude that increasing the proportion of barley silage in a feedlot finishing diet at the expense of barley grain to minimize the incidence of ruminal acidosis may decrease feed conversion efficiency.

Project description:Single-pass corn stover harvest is a method whereby combine harvester tailings consisting of cob, stalk, leaf, husk, and tassel fractions are collected and baled without coming into contact with soil. The objective was to feed beef steers diets that included a roughage component consisting of harvested corn residue in chopped form from conventional corn stover bales (CST) or single-pass bales (SPB) to assess intake selectivity of corn stover fractions and estimate net energy values of these corn stovers. Whole plant corn silage served as the control roughage in the control diet (CSIL). Steers (n = 90, 5 pens per treatment) were fed during Grow (84 d) and Finish (66 d) trials. Steers sorted through corn stover during both trials and consumed 52.5% of corn stover offered and 40% of cob offered. Intake of SPB cob was 2.6-fold and 3.3-fold greater than CST cob intake (P < 0.01) in Grow and Finish trials, respectively, indicating that when more cob was available, cattle consumed more. During the Grow trial, stover intake tended (P = 0.07) to be lower for SPB and diet dry matter intake (DMI) was less (P ≤ 0.05) for SPB, which may be due to the elevated cob intake by SPB steers. Across treatments, stover DMI was similar in the Grow (1.10 kg per steer per d) and Finish (1.11 kg per steer per d) trials. The proportion (65%) of Fines (<8 mm) consumed from the Grow diet (40% neutral detergent fiber, aNDF) was greater than the Finish diet (25% aNDF; 18% to 31%) and gleaning of concentrate feeds from orts seemed to be more extensive in the Grow diet. Steers consuming Finish diets containing SPB and CST had DMI that were 17% and 18%, respectively, greater (P ≤ 0.05) than CSIL, an indication of compensatory intake. The physical effectiveness factors for stovers fed in the Grow and Finish diets were 0.85 and 0.95, respectively. Estimates for net energy maintenance and net energy gain (NEg), respectively, using National Research Council methods from 2001 were as follows for consumed stovers: SPB (1.09 and 0.54 Mcal/kg) and CST (0.98 and 0.44 Mcal/kg) in the Grow trial, and SPB (0.96 and 0.42 Mcal/kg) and CST (0.95 and 0.40 Mcal/kg) in the Finish trial. Although SPB and CST differ in botanical fraction composition and net intakes of botanical fractions, their energetic contributions to steer performance were very similar. Steers fed the Finish diet (1.25 Mcal performance-adjusted NEg per kg) selected stover botanical components to achieve a diet composition of 25% aNDF.

Project description:We hypothesized that supplementing finishing diets with palm oil would promote adipogenic gene expression and stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) gene expression in subcutaneous (s.c.) and intramuscular (i.m.) adipose tissues of feedlot steers. Eighteen Angus and Angus crossbred steers were assigned to three groups of 6 steers and fed a basal diet (control), with 3% palm oil, or with 3% soybean oil, for 70 d, top-dressed daily. Tailhead s.c. adipose tissue was obtained by biopsy at 14 d before the initiation of dietary treatments and at 35 d of dietary treatments. At slaughter, after 70 d of dietary treatment, tailhead s.c. adipose tissue and i.m. adipose tissue were obtained from the longissimus thoracis muscle. Palm oil increased plasma palmitic acid and soybean oil increased plasma linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid relative to the initial sampling time. Expression of AMP-activated protein kinase alpha (AMPKα) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) increased between the initial and intermediate biopsies and declined thereafter (p<0.03). SCD gene expression did not change between the initial and intermediate biopsies but declined by over 75% by the final period (p = 0.04), and G-coupled protein receptor 43 (GPR43) gene expression was unaffected by diet or time on trial. Soybean oil decreased (p = 0.01) PPARγ gene expression at the intermediate sample time. At the terminal sample time, PPARγ and SCD gene expression was less in i.m. adipose tissue than in s.c. adipose tissue (p<0.05). AMPKα gene expression was less in s.c. adipose tissue of palm oil-fed steers than in control steers (p = 0.04) and CCAAT enhancer binding protein-beta (CEBPβ) gene expression was less in s.c. and i.m. adipose tissues of palm oil-fed steers than in soybean oil-fed steers (p<0.03). Soybean oil decreased SCD gene expression in s.c. adipose tissue (p = 0.05); SCD gene expression in palm oil-fed steers was intermediate between control and soybean oil-fed steers. Contrary to our original hypothesis, palm oil did not promote adipogenic gene expression in s.c. and i.m. adipose tissue.

Project description:This study investigated the effects of xylanase supplementations with cereal-based diets on nutrient digestibility and gut microbiota of growing pigs. A total of 96 individually penned pigs (initial BW = 22.7 ± 0.65 kg) were allotted to 12 treatments and subjected to a completely randomized block design experiment. Pigs in each treatment were fed an isocaloric wheat-based or corn-based diet with or without 1 of 5 types of xylanase supplements (XA, XB, XC, XD, XE). On d 42, all piglets were euthanized to obtain ileal and cecal digesta for microbial analysis, which involved high-throughput sequencing of the V1 - V3 regions of 16S rRNA gene. Corn- and wheat-based diets differed (P < 0.05) in digestion characteristics. Dietary treatments affected the alpha- and beta-diversities of microbiota in the cecum but not in the ileum. The wheat-based diet increased (P < 0.05) alpha-diversity and clustered separately (P < 0.05) compared with the corn-based diet. Wheat-based diet also promoted the relative abundance of genus (g.) Succinivibrio while corn-based diet promoted the proportion of family (f.) Veillonellaceae in the community. Among xylanases, only XC within the wheat-based diet altered (P < 0.05) the beta-diversity of the cecal microbiota compared with control. For each cereal-based diet and compared with the controls, xylanase treatments affected (P < 0.05) the proportions of 5 bacterial taxa in the ileum (f. Peptostreptococcaceae, order [o.] Streptophyta, f. Clostridiaceae, g. Clostridium and g. Streptococcus) and 8 in the cecum (g. Lactobacillus, g. Streptococcus, class [c.] Clostridia, f. Clostridiaceae, g. Megasphaera, g. Prevotella, g. Roseburia and f. Ruminococcaceae). Network analysis showed that across diets under control treatments, Bacteroidetes was the most influential phylum promoting cooperative relationships among members of the ileum and cecum microbiota. Xylanase treatment, however, reduced the influence of Bacteroidetes and promoted a large number of hub taxa majority of which belonged to the Firmicutes phylum. To maximize the efficiency of xylanase supplementation, our data suggest that xylanase C originated from Bacillus subtilis was more effective when applied to wheat-based diets, while xylanase A originated from Fusarium verticillioides was more beneficial when applied to corn-based diets.

Dataset Information

The Influence of Environmental Conditions on Intake Behavior and Activity by Feedlot Steers Fed Corn or Barley-Based Diets.

Publications

The Influence of Environmental Conditions on Intake Behavior and Activity by Feedlot Steers Fed Corn or Barley-Based Diets.

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