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Increasing Efficiency Of Finishing Beef Production: Strategies To Optimize Starch Digestion, Improve Flake Quality, And Reduce Methane Emissions, Ronald J. Trotta

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

To continue to meet the demands of increasing food production and environmental sustainability, new strategies are needed to enhance the efficiency of finishing cattle production. A review of the literature identified several nutritional and physiological constraints that limit the ability for cattle to digest starch and absorb glucose from the small intestine. Comparative sequencing analyses revealed a missing region of the sucrase-isomaltase protein which could affect the capacity for starch digestion in cattle. Post-flaking sampling and handling recommendations were generated based on a series of experiments to improve estimates of starch availability and flaking consistency for commercial feedlots and laboratories. …

Selenium Form-Induced Changes In The Early Luteal Phase Corpus Luteum, The Blood, And The Endometrium During Early Gestation In Beef Cows, Sarah Nancy Carr

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Selenium (Se) deficient soils and thus forages are widespread throughout the United States, necessitating supplementation of this trace mineral in the diet of grass-fed cattle to negate detrimental effects of a deficiency on immune function, growth, and fertility. Conventionally, Se is supplemented to cattle in a vitamin-mineral mix as an inorganic form (ISe) although the organic forms (OSe) are available when cattle consumer forage, and OSe has been shown to increase the bioavailability of Se in cattle. Previous research has demonstrated supplementation with 1:1 mixture (MIX) of ISe and OSe compared to ISe alone increases systemic concentrations of progesterone (P4) …

Effects Of Biosynthesized Bromoform On Enteric Methane Production, Animal Performance And Tissue Residues In Cattle, Sydney Davis

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been implicated in global warming and extreme climate change conditions. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified agriculture, more specifically cattle production, as a major contributor to global GHG production. When expressed as liters of gas, CO2 is considered the primary GHG produced, however, in terms of global warming potential (GWP), CH4 has 25-times greater potential than that of CO2. Due to the elevated GWP of CH4, we have constructed a series of experiments to investigate the use of a halogenated CH4 analogue derived from kelp (i.e., bromoform) as an inhibitor of enteric CH4 production …

Personality Traits Of Dairy Calves And Their Relationship With Feeding Behavior, Activity, And Performance, Emily A. Michalski

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Detection of individual differences in personality traits of animals may prove beneficial for producers to help tailor management for individuals and to make selection decisions. Therefore, the objectives of this thesis were to

1) review and evaluate literature on relationships between individual cattle personality traits and feeding behavior, activity, and performance; and

2) evaluate and develop tests suitable for characterizing crossbred dairy-beef calves’ personalities and associations with behavioral patterns and performance.

The existing literature indicates that growth, intake, activity, and milk production measures from precision technologies have associations with cattle personality traits and behaviors identifiable through standardized tests. This indicates …

Evaluation Of Boron Supplementation In Swine And Poultry, Tyler B. Chevalier

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

The objectives of this dissertation were to evaluate dietary boron (B) supplementation as sodium borate in various swine models and broiler chicks through a series of experiments. The initial experiment evaluated supplemental B (0, 25, 50, and 100 ppm B) on serum insulin, glucose, and clinical chemistry panel of growing pigs. Serum insulin/glucose ratio tended to decrease linearly with increasing supplemental B in a fasting state (P = 0.08). These findings were more noticeable (linear effect, P = 0.02) in a postprandial state (~ 50 minutes following a meal). A series of follow-up studies further evaluating B supplementation (0, 5, …

Evaluation Of Increasing Levels Of Mycotoxin-Containing Corn Fines On Diet Choice And Growth Performance Of Nursery Pigs, Duncan B. Paczosa

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Pigs fed mycotoxin contaminated diets at high concentrations will result in a detriment to health and performance. An initial study and a follow-up study were conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding increasing levels of mycotoxin-containing corn fines on growth performance, diet preference of pigs, and two possible mitigants.

The initial study was a 3 x 2 factorial containing three levels of fines (0, 10, and 20%, Diets 1-3, respectively) and either 0 ppm (Diets 1-3) or 40 ppm boron (Diets 4-6; Diets 4-6 were Diets 1-3, respectively, plus boron) as sodium tetraborate decahydrate as a possible mitigant. In this …

Utilizing Precision Technologies To Validate A Real-Time Location System For Dairy Cattle And Monitor Calf Behaviors During Heat Stress, Emily Rice

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

With the increase in on-farm precision dairy technologies (PDT) utilization, large quantities of information are readily available to producers. A more recently available technology for use in livestock species is the real-time location system. These technologies offer dairy producers the opportunity to monitor and track real-time locations of cows, track locomotion patterns, and summarize specific area usage. However, the usefulness of these insights is heavily dependent on the performance of the technology. Therefore, the first objective of this dissertation was to assess the positioning recording performance and the usefulness of the data recorded of a real-time location system (Smartbow GmbH; …

Profiling The Cell Wall Polysaccharides Of Hemp (Cannabis Sativa L.) Inflorescence And Hempseed And Exploring Their Application As Ruminant Feed Ingredients, Miranda Agbana

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is used in the United States as a source of CBD oil, fiber, and grain. While hempseeds are consumed whole or as dehulled hemp hearts, hempseed oil is also a desirable seed oil in human nutrition. The process of collecting hempseed oil leaves behind hempseed cakes that are abundant in protein and fiber. Feeding of hempseed cakes to animals, including ruminants, has only initially been explored. Extraction of CBD from hemp inflorescences generates organic waste that may find a second purpose as a fiber feed for cattle. Little is known about the exact fiber composition …

The Effects Of Exogenous Enzyme Supplementation On The Performance, Bone Quality, And Nutrient Utilization Of Broiler Chickens, Megan Bauer

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of Allzyme® Spectrum supplementation to a reduced nutrient diet on the growth performance, energy and nutrient digestibility and utilization, bone quality, and jejunal digesta viscosity in broiler chickens. Each experiment used 300 one-day old Cobb by-product breeder chicks with 5 treatments, 10 replicates, and 6 birds per replicate cage in a randomized complete block design. The only differences between the two experiments were experiment 1 lasted for 21 days using a corn-soybean meal-based diet and experiment 2 lasted for 22 days using a wheat-soybean meal-based diet. The 5 treatments included a positive …

Precision Livestock Farming And Personality As Tools To Understand Dairy Calf Individual Variation In Performance, Behavior, And Response To Stress, Megan Marie Woodrum Setser

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Individual differences impact animal responses to their environments and can be observed with animal personality (stable behavioral differences with populations) and food neophobia (avoidance of unfamiliar feeds). These individual differences can influence cattle performance and welfare. Precision technologies, such as automatic feeding systems (AFS) and accelerometers continuously measure feeding behaviors and activity and may allow us to relate individual differences to behaviors in the home environment. Therefore, the first objective was to determine if food neophobia was associated with feeding behaviors measured by AFS. Food neophobia was associated with rewarded visits to the AFS, but to no other feeding behaviors. …

Plant Cell Wall Composition And In Vitro Fermentation Characteristics Of Cool-Season Forage Grasses From Two Growing Seasons In Central Kentucky, Sophia Danielle Newhuis

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Grass cell walls are rich in cellulose, hemicellulosic arabinoxylan (AX) polysaccharides, and lignin. AX structural differences such as degree and pattern of branching and the ester-linked phenolic acid content could affect plants’ digestibility when used as forage for livestock. However, there is little information about how these structural elements change over the growing season in the vegetative tissue of cool-season perennial grasses. Enhanced information about the cell wall composition and carbohydrate structure of forage material will provide a foundation for expanding our knowledge of how forage cell wall carbohydrate structures are utilized by ruminants. The objectives of this study were …