Animal Sciences Commons^™

Putting The Pieces Together: Using Cattle To Build Soil For Crops, John Bell

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

Raising livestock AND crops is an important topic to me and perhaps one of the most significant keys to the success of Elmwood Stock Farm.

In some parts of the country either you ride a horse following livestock and are called a rancher or you ride steel, grow crops and are a farmer. Not both. Fortunately, I grew up in central Kentucky where, due to topography and climate, we did some of both. Few people had enough land to run enough cattle alone to make a living. Likewise, few farms laid in a manner that allowed someone to raise only …

Building Strong Nutrient Cycles In Kentucky's Pastures, Christopher D. Teutsch

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

Well managed grassland ecosystems are one of the most sustainable forms of agricultural production. Few nutrients are removed from properly managed grazing systems. Instead these nutrients are cycled within the grazing system. In addition, proper grazing management maintains a healthy and vigorous sod that protects the soil from erosion and increases rainfall infiltration. This article will discuss how to build and maintain strong nutrient cycles in Kentucky's pastures.

The Soil Is Alive!, Mark S. Coyne

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

Grab a handful of soil. . . . . What does it look like? What does it feel like? It may seem rather ordinary; but look closer. What are you holding in your hand? A mixture of minerals and air with some water and organic matter? Is that all? No. There's so much more to soil than that. For a soil scientist in general and a soil microbiologist in particular the soil is a living thing, a mixture of living and dead organisms in an organic/mineral matrix. Not every organism is identical, or as abundant, or does the same things, …

2017 Long-Term Summary Of Kentucky Forage Variety Trials, Gene L. Olson, S. Ray Smith, Christopher D. Teutsch

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

Forage crops occupy approximately 7 million acres in Kentucky. Forages provide a majority of the nutrition for beef, dairy, horse, goat, sheep, and wildlife in the state. In addition, forage crops play an environmentally friendly role in soil conservation, water quality, and air quality. There are over 60 forage species adapted to the climate and soil conditions of Kentucky. Only 10 to 12 of these species occupy the majority of the acreage, but within these species there is a tremendous variation in varieties. This publication was developed to provide a user-friendly guide to choosing the best variety for producers based …

Forages At Kca Foreword [2018], Christopher D. Teutsch, Christi L. Forsythe

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

No abstract provided.

Conservation Limnogeology And Benthic Habitat Mapping In Central Lake Tanganyika (Tanzania), Joseph S. Lucas

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Small scale protected zones are valuable for helping the health and productivity of fisheries at Lake Tanganyika (East Africa). Spatial placement of protected areas relies on accurate maps of benthic habitats, consisting of detailed bathymetry data and information on lake-floor substrates. This information is unknown for most of Lake Tanganyika. Fish diversity is known to correlate with rocky substrates in ≤ 30 m water depth, which provide spawning grounds for littoral and pelagic species. These benthic habitats form important targets for protected areas, if they can be precisely located.

At the NMVA, echosounding defined the position of the 30-m isobath …

The Impact Of Insulin Dysregulation On Protein Metabolism In Horses, Caroline Margot Marcelle Loos

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Insulin plays a vital role in whole-body metabolism and provides a major anabolic stimulus for cellular signaling pathways, including those involved in the metabolism of glucose and protein. Consequently, insulin dysregulation (ID) is known to alter molecular signal transduction in insulin-sensitive tissues such as skeletal muscle, thereby disrupting glucose metabolism and compromising protein synthetic capacity. Our first objective was to induce ID in healthy horses by administering dexamethasone (DEX), a potent glucocorticoid, for 21 days. We evaluated the effects on insulin-stimulated muscle protein signaling components involved in the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. DEX-induced ID reduced insulin-stimulated activation of …

Factors Influencing Phosphorus Excretion By Horses, Ashley Lauren Fowler

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Excessive phosphorus (P) excreted by animals can affect water quality and cause eutrophication. Better understanding of factors that influence P utilization and excretion in horses may reduce the environmental impact of P. Two animal experiments were conducted that examined P excretion by horses. The efficacy of titanium dioxide as an external marker to calculate digestibility was studied concurrently with both animal experiments. Additionally, pasture P concentrations were evaluated over the growing season using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Experiment 1 examined P excretion by post-lactational mares fed a low P diet immediately prior to weaning compared to non-lactating controls fed an adequate …

On-Farm Utilization Of Precision Dairy Monitoring: Usefulness, Accuracy, And Affordability, Elizabeth A. Eckelkamp

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Precision dairy monitoring is used to supplement or replace human observation of dairy cattle. This study examined the value dairy producers placed on disease alerts generated from a precision dairy monitoring technology. A secondary objective was calculating the accuracy of technology-generated disease alerts compared against observed disease events. A final objective was determining the economic viability of investing in a precision dairy monitoring technology for detecting estrus and diseases.

A year-long observational study was conducted on four Kentucky dairy farms. All lactating dairy cows were equipped with a neck and leg tri-axial accelerometer. Technologies measured eating time, lying time, standing …

Dairy Cattle Hoof Disease Costs And Considerations For Prevention, Karmella A. Dolecheck

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Lameness is considered one of the most important health and welfare issues in the dairy industry. Understanding the total cost per case of disease-specific lameness can help producers select better treatment, prevention, and control strategies for their herds. The first objective of our research was to calculate the costs associated with 3 lameness causing hoof diseases: digital dermatitis, sole ulcer, and white line disease. To accomplish this, a survey of hoof health professionals (hoof trimmers and veterinarians) was conducted to identify treatment related expenditures per case. Data from the hoof trimmer responses to the survey and previously published research were …

An Evaluation Of Physiological And Behavioral Indicators Of Postpartum Diseases And Heat Stress In Dairy Cows, Amanda Renee Lee

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Precision dairy monitoring technologies can be used to monitor changes in physiology and behavior associated with transition period postpartum diseases and heat stress. Research Objective One was to evaluate how traditional visual examination, body condition, and locomotion with and without blood, milk, and urine variables and precision dairy monitoring technologies determine variable association with hyperketonemia, metritis, mastitis, hypocalcemia and retained placenta,. This was accomplished by monitoring cows 2 weeks before calving to 3 weeks after calving for any postpartum diseases using daily visual examination and automatically detected variables including activity, milk yield, milk components, lying behavior, feeding behavior, rumination time, …

The Effects Of Housing On Dairy Cow Comfort, Immune Function, Stress, Productivity, And Milk Quality, Matthew Richard Borchers

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Mastitis and milk quality affect every dairy farmer across the globe. Sand bedded freestalls are the industry standard for cow comfort, welfare, and the control of environmental mastitis. Compost bedded packs may be a viable alternative to the sand bedded freestall.

Compost bedded packs are maintained at a consistent level of moisture, nutrients, and aeration to favor compost microorganisms. Greater bacteria counts in bedding have traditionally been associated with increased mastitis rates and mastitis pathogens can be found in the pack and on the teats of cattle housed in even well managed compost bedded pack barns. In spite of this, …

Assessment Of The Serum Amyloid A Assay For Diagnosing Disease In Neonatal Foals, Samantha W. Strouss

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Diagnosing disease in equine neonates poses a challenge for the equine industry because of the nonspecific manifestations of many diseases and the rapid deterioration that occurs. The differential diagnostic procedure requires many laboratory tests, whose results take days to receive. Serum amyloid A (SAA) is the only major acute phase protein identified in the horse; it exists in low levels in the healthy horse and increases over 100 fold in response to inflammatory stimulus 6-8 hours post stimulus. A point of care test allows veterinarians to obtain a SAA concentration within minutes that indicates the existence of infection. Being able …

Whole-Body Protein Metabolism In Mature And Growing Horses Receiving Predominantly Forage Diets, Sophie A. Stratton

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

There has been limited investigation as to whether a predominantly forage-based diet can provide adequate amounts of limiting amino acids (AA) to horses. The first objective was to determine if AA supplementation of AA believed to be limiting to protein synthesis in forage-based diets would affect measures of whole-body protein metabolism in sedentary mature horses. The effect of forage type (timothy or alfalfa) and AA supplementation (lysine, threonine or histidine) on plasma urea nitrogen (PUN) and AA concentrations and measures of whole-body phenylalanine kinetics were evaluated. There was no effect of either forage type or AA supplement on rates of …

Influence Of Dietary Ractopamine And Supranutritional Supplementation Of Vitamin E On Proteome Profile Of Postmortem Beef Longissimus Lumborum Muscle, Hyun Mok Kim

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

The effects of dietary ingredients on the proteome profile of postmortem beef longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle were evaluated. In the first experiment, the influence of dietary ractopamine on the whole-muscle proteome of beef LL was examined. Five proteins were differentially abundant between ractopamine-fed (RAC) and non-ractopamine fed (CON) groups. The differentially abundant proteins were over-abundant in RAC and were related to muscle structure development (F-actin-capping protein subunit beta-2 and PDZ and LIM domain protein-3), chaperone (heat shock protein beta-1), oxygen transportation (myoglobin), and glycolysis (L-lactate dehydrogenase A chain). These findings indicated that ractopamine influences the abundance of proteins associated with …

Comparing Dairy Farm Performance And Heat Stress Abatment Strategies In The United States Using Summer To Winter Ratios, Jenna M. Guinn

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Heat stress abatement is a challenge for producers in the United States, especially in the southern states. Dairy producers could benefit by having a simply metric to measure heat stress abatement strategies with the goal of motivating improvement in heat stress management. Managing heat stress is key to ameliorating the effects on dairy cow performance. A study was performed to explore the use of a heat stress metric called the Summer to Winter performance ratio (S:W ratio), to quantify and compare farm performance variables among regions of the United States. Summer to Winter ratios were closest to 1.0 in the …

Long-Term Effects Of Dietary Copper Source And Level On Performance And Health Of Sows And Piglets, Ning Lu

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

The objectives of this study were to investigate the long-term effects of feeding increasing supplemental levels (20, 120, or 220 mg/kg) of dietary copper (Cu) as tribasic copper chloride (TBCC) or copper sulfate (CuSO₄) on performance, antioxidant status, nutrient digestibility, and trace mineral deposition of sows and piglets; as well as to assess nursery dietary Cu levels on growth performance and response to immunological challenge in nursery pigs from sows fed either high or low Cu diets. In the long-term sow experiment, sows fed TBCC diets had greater adjusted weaning weight for litter and piglet (P < 0.10), as well as adjusted litter and piglet weight gain (P …