No Better Bull

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Ranchers,

This week, No Better Bull’s guest speaker will be Dr. Monte Kerley from the University of Missouri. Dr. Kerley will talk about feed efficiency and the new measurement – Residual Feed Intake or RFI. This informative presentation will give you an hands on understanding of how feed efficiency is being measured. You’ll see real world results on the differences that exist between animals that have been measured for this trait. Be sure not to miss this informative presentation at 8 pm Mountain Time, Thursday, Jan. 24.

Dr. Monte Kerley is a professor of ruminant nutrition at the University of Missouri. He will talk about how we can measure feed efficiency in growing cattle and the ramifications of such selection for cow/calf operators.

What is residual feed intake and how do we measure it?
What factors drive efficiency of gain?
How big are the differences within most groups of bulls evaluated?
How does selection for RFI impact cows on forage?
How will selection for RFI improve the economics of cattle production?
Tune in and take advantage of this unique opportunity to have industry leaders address your questions. If you are a first time viewer, here is what you need to do:

Download Adobe Flash Player free by clicking here.
Sign up for an account at DV Auction by clicking here.
Then go to www.dvauction.com at 8 p.m. Mountain Time on Thursday, Jan. 24.

 

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http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/9/164

http://www.ans.iastate.edu/faculty/johnsona/acc/breeze/week5/Ungar%20and%20Rutter%202005%20Jaw%20movement%20in%20cattle.pdf

http://stud.epsilon.slu.se/2823/1/saras_johansson_m_110616.pdf

Cattle try to maintain the intake rate by higher bite frequency and decreased time per bite. The effort for maintaining the intake rate is more intense when the height and density of the grass changes, as the bite mass will in turn change as well (Hall, 2002; Phillips 2002). Due to the technique of wrapping the tongue before pulling to grasp, cattle are limited to plants higher than one cm (Hall 2002). Despite the preference for longer grasses cattle can graze shorter grasses, but then with a higher bite rate up to 70 bites per minute, in order to maintain the intake rate (Dumont et al., 1995). As bite size increase the same jaw movement is used for both grasping and chewing the forages (Laca et al., 1994). When cattle are fed indoors the bites from the feeding trough tend to be less frequent but larger, when compared to foraging on pasture. This change is due to the fact that animals do not have to search, nor gather, their forage (Baumont et al. 2006). Therefore, the eating time decreases about 30-50% when animals are fed indoors compared to the time they spend grazing outdoors (Faverdin et al., 1995).