Latest News From Animal Nutrition

Numerous studies have now shown that feeding colostrum replacer to mimic transition milk has beneficial effects for preweaned calves.

Missouri's drought in 2022 and 2023 may have been underrated, says Eric Bailey, University of Missouri Extension. He offers tips for stretching your feed during the next few months.

While it's easy to immediately place blame on your nutritionist for diet related problems, these three problem solving steps need to be taken before you jump to conclusions.

In both human and veterinary medicine, we’re hearing more about the benefits of gut supplements to support health, performance, and well-being.

Road ditch hay can provide needed forage. With a few precautions and a forage analysis, it can help you meet your cow’s nutrient requirements this winter.

Help cattle weather the elements and combat cold stress when the temperature drops.

When cows get below their lower critical temperature and get into cold stress, they can adapt by increasing feed consumption to increase their basal metabolic rate and increase heat of fermentation.

Bulls are often a part of the cow herd that slips through the cracks during the winter months as breeding seasons end. Bull management strategies can impact a bull’s performance in the upcoming breeding season.

Evaluating money saved when purchasing feed on cost per unit of protein and energy basis.

This low-cost feed option can get the herd off pastures and save harvested forages for winter. But the rumen has to be managed in the process, and it can't adjust overnight. Water, salt and protein also need monitoring.

In any nutritional program it is imperative to determine the objective of why we are feeding or supplementing. After defining our goal, we can minimize input costs and maximize our profit potential.

Pregnant cows and heifers should be supplemented with 30,000 to 100,000 IU/head/day of Vitamin A and 50 to 100 IU/head/day of Vitamin E when green forage is not available.

Implementing a weaning program that emphasizes quality nutrition helps give calves a healthy start and can bring more return on investment

Feeding hay to preweaned dairy calves remains a topic of frequent confusion and debate. Should you do it at all? And if so, when, and what type? Penn State offers some answers.

While trace mineral deficiencies can vary widely by animal and region, the most common ones Jeffery Hall, DVM, PhD, DABVT, sees in cattle today are insufficient copper, manganese, selenium and zinc.

Windrow grazing, sometimes called swath grazing, is a management practice that can significantly reduce harvesting and feeding costs.

Pioneering an investigation into the potential use of discarded canola as a dietary supplement for pregnant cows, graduate student, Erika Cornand, aims to enhance both their health and the well-being of their calves.

KENT Corporation will celebrate the grand opening of the Iowa State University KENT Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex on Sept. 8.

To help fill energy gaps in late-season grazing additional supplementation will likely be needed and rumen-protected fat supplements should be a key component in buffer rations to maximize milk yield and quality.

Although drought persists north and south of Oklahoma, forage conditions have improved greatly in the state this summer. July was the seventh wettest July on record in Oklahoma.

Estimating forage usage by cows is an important part of the task of calculating winter feed needs as we head into fall. It's been dry in so many areas, the need to make these estimations is more important than ever.

Grazing cornstalks or drought-stricken corn can fill feed gaps during drought, says University of Missouri Extension beef nutritionist Eric Bailey.

In these tumultuous times of drought, global unrest, and supply chain disruptions, feed grains may not be as plentiful, available, and affordable as we have traditionally enjoyed.

Vitamin A is critical to cattle health and is generally consumed in adequate quantities. But Vitamin A in stored feedstuffs declines over time with exposure to sunlight and high temperatures.

With no end to the higher feed cost trend in sight, farmers are looking at ways to get the most out of their rations while minimizing wasted feed.

What’s the perfect close-up ration to optimize calf health -- something that’s not too much of this or too little of that, but “just right?”

Ruminants walk a fine line in their ability to utilize certain feedstuffs while maintaining digestive integrity. Michigan State University researchers recently evaluated the effect of starch in dairy diets.

Feed costs will continue to be the No. 1 expense. Jim Salfer, Extension dairy educator with the University of Minnesota, offers some best practices to help producers lower feed costs.

Raising heat-tolerant cattle that are able and willing to go further to graze in subtropical climates is the goal of a new beef cattle research project at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research station at Beeville.

More dairy heifer raisers are taking a page from the feedlot world these days by utilizing liquid supplements as carriers for vitamins, trace minerals, and feed additives in heifer TMRs.

The livestock production businesses of the future will need to balance much more than the bottom line.

Head to Lancaster County Pennsylvania and the sweet aroma of candy can be smelled on a family dairy farm. Red Knob Dairy has been feeding upcycled Hershey candy waste to their cows for more than a decade.

Persistent drought in major beef cattle production regions continues to have a significant impact on the cattle industry despite improvements in drought conditions in other parts of the country.

“Pushing feed is perhaps the simplest and least expensive management strategy dairy operators can implement.”

So-called “sacrifice pastures” might be needed to help promote forage production the rest of this cattle grazing season.

Supplementing early lactation dairy cow diets with bile acids could provide a pathway to suppressing fatty liver and ketosis, and ultimately boosting milk production and profitability.

When cattle diets are changed without an adaptation period or if cattle have sudden access to a new feedstuff, health problems can follow.

Testing forage and feed for nutrient quality helps ranchers ensure they are meeting nutrient requirements for optimum beef cattle performance.

Feed additives can be included in dairy cattle diets for a variety of reasons. However, feed additives should not be considered a cornerstone to any farm feeding program.

When calves on grass drop like flies, have minimal gains and many carcasses are condemned on the rail, Kansas State University experts uncover the unfortunate cause.

Could probiotics improve early calf growth? Researchers think so.

While “high-risk” cattle are often given high levels of hay or forage to aid in the transition to a milled diet, a study at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station researches ways to increase performance.

When cows get below their lower critical temperature and get into cold stress, they can adapt by increasing feed consumption to increase their basal metabolic rate and increase heat of fermentation.

When a significant number of cattle died in less than two hours, a number of questions are raised. Kansas State University experts discuss this toxicology case and the answers that were found.

Determining how much forage cows will eat on a per day and per month basis for the duration of winter always requires a little “cowboy math”.

Determining proper mineral supplementation merits more thought than simply going to the feed store, grabbing a few bags or a pallet of the mineral they have on hand and throwing it in a lick tub.

Estimating forage usage by cows is an important part of the task of calculating winter feed needs. Hay or standing forage intake must be estimated in order to make the calculations.

Creating a herd where all the individuals are healthy and normal increases your chances of economic success.

Grazing regrowth on irrigated alfalfa fields is likely in fall grazing plans for many producers. However, alfalfa has several challenges to grazing from animal and plant health perspective.

Purina introduces EfficienZ, a non-nutritive feed additive available in select supplements marketed by the company.