Browsing by Subject "Animal sciences"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
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    Effect of feeding high protein dried distillers grains in beef finishing diets on carcass characterIstics, beef quality, and sensory attributes.
    (2011-07) Popowski, Jacqueline Marie
    Angus steers (n=48) were individually fed one of three dietary treatments in the feedlot finishing phase that included a conventional corn based diet (CON); a treatment containing 35% dried distillers grains with solubles replacing dry rolled corn (DDGS); and a treatment containing 35% high protein dried distillers grains replacing dry rolled corn (HPDDG). Including HPDDG in beef cattle finishing diets tended to reduce overall daily feed intake (P=0.08); however, average daily gain and final body weight were not affected (P=0.49 and P=0.54, respectively). There were no differences among treatments for dressing percentage (P=0.22), hot carcass weight (P=0.54), 12th rib back fat (P=0.18), and percent kidney pelvic and heart fat (P=0.35). Longissimus muscle was similar (P=0.57) among treatment and averaged 78.1 cm2 for across treatments. Average USDA Yield Grades were similar (P=0.54) for CON, DDGS, and HPDDG (2.56, 2.75, and 2.69, respectively). Marbling scores (where 500=small00, 600=modest00) were similar (P=0.26) across treatments. Fabrication loss was similar across treatments for the inside round, strip loin, and shoulder clod (P=0.20, 0.36, and 0.20, respectively). Drip and purge loss percentages were similar across treatments (P=0.49 and 0.16, respectively). Shear force values did not differ among treatments (P=0.25) and averaged 2.54, 2.37, and 2.88 kg, respectively. Consumer sensory scores for overall liking (P=0.10), texture liking (P=0.47), toughness (P=0.17), and off flavor (P=0.20) did not differ among treatments; however, there was a trend for higher flavor liking ratings for CON steaks compared to HPDDG (P=0.06). High protein dried distillers grains steaks were rated the highest for juiciness (8.49). For cooked sausage, CON rated the highest for overall liking and flavor liking (P=0.01 and P=0.04, respectively). The CON and HPDDG sausages were rated higher than DDGS for texture liking and toughness (P=0.01 and P < 0.001, respectively). For strip steak objective shelf life, treatment did not affect L* or b* values (P=0.87 and 0.43, respectively), however treatment did affect a* values (P=0.0001). Redness values were higher for CON as compared to DDGS and HPDDG. Treatment affected subjective scores for lean color, surface discoloration and overall appearance (P=0.0001) of strip steaks. Objective shelf life analysis of ground beef, summer sausage, and bologna indicated that treatment did not affect mean L*, a*, or b* values (P=0.15, 0.16, and 0.23 respectively). CON ground beef had a more desirable subjective lean color (P=0.001) and overall appearance (P=0.001) than DDGS and HPDDG. Treatment had no effect on bologna subjective scores for lean color and surface discoloration (P=0.07 and 0.10, respectively).Treatment did affect mean overall appearance (P=0.03), with higher values for CON as compared to DDGS and HPDDG. For summer sausage, there was no effect of treatment on subjective scores for lean color (P=0.35) surface discoloration (P=0.38) and overall appearance (P=0.31). Treatment had no effect on saturated fatty acid and monounsaturated fatty acid percentage (P=0.44 and 0.86 respectively), however; treatment did affect polyunsaturated fatty acid (P=0.0001), with CON having lower values than DDGS and HPDDG. There was no difference between treatments on d 0 (P=0.50) for lipid oxidation in ground beef, however, on d 7 HPDDG had increased values compared to DDGS and CON (P=0.001) as indicated by TBARS. Results indicate that beef cattle finished on diets containing high protein dried distillers grains may replace up to 35% of corn grain in feedlot diets and not affect carcass characteristics, moisture loss, and shear force of fresh beef products. However, inclusion of HPDDG in the diet at 35% may increase lipid oxidation resulting in a decrease in shelf life and unfavorable changes in sensory characteristics of fresh steaks. Keywords: Distillers Grains, High Protein, Beef Quality
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    Effect of grouping strategy and stocking density on the behavior of prepartum dairy cows and the association between behavior and periparturient cow health
    (2014-10) Luchterhand, Karen Marie
    The transition dairy cow is one of the highest risk animals for falling ill or dying on the dairy farm. The objectives of this thesis were: Determine whether providing a stable pen management affected displacements from the feed bunk and feeding behavior of prepartum Jersey dairy cows; Examine the effects of prepartum stocking density on social, lying and feeding behavior of prepartum Jersey cows;Investigate the relationship between prepartum feeding times and periparturient health disorders, first test milk yield and milk composition in Jersey cows; Determine whether social dominance, determined by displacements from the feed bunk prepartum and 3 different methods, was associated with health, reproduction, and milk yield of transition Jersey cows; and Determine whether lying behavior was associated with postpartum health events up to 60 days in milk.
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    Effects of dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) feeding strategies on growth performance, nutrient intake, body composition, and lean and fat quality of immunologically castrated pigs harvested at 5,7, or 9 weeks after the second Improvest dose
    (2014-12) Harris, Erin Kay
    At times the price relationship between corn, soybean meal, and dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) warrants the inclusion of more than 30% DDGS in swine growing-finishing diets. However, adding more than 20% DDGS to these diets can cause soft pork fat. Pigs with less backfat, such as immunologically castrated pigs, are more sensitive to dietary fatty acid composition than physical castrates with greater backfat thickness. To overcome soft pork fat resulting from feeding DDGS diets, DDGS can either be removed before pigs are harvested or the dietary inclusion rate can be gradually decreased during the growing-finishing period. However, it is unknown if using these feeding strategies are effective for immunologically castrated pigs that can be harvested 3 to 10 weeks after the second Improvest® (gonadotropin releasing factor analog - diphtheria toxoid conjugate; Zoetis, Inc, Florham Park, NJ) dose. Gradually decreasing the DDGS inclusion from 40 to 10% was more advantageous than withdrawing DDGS from the diet 5 wk before harvest because lean gain/d and lean gain caloric efficiency were greater than feeding 40% DDGS diets throughout the growing-finishing period, and similar to pigs fed corn-soybean meal diets with no DDGS. Feeding diets containing 40% DDGS throughout the growing-finishing period resulted in reduced loin and fat quality. Gradually reducing the DDGS inclusion or withdrawing DDGS 5 wk before harvest were not effective in improving loin quality, but both reduced belly fat iodine value. Delaying the second Improvest® dose to 5 weeks before harvest resulted in the greatest benefit for improving lean gain caloric efficiency. Harvesting pigs at 5, 7, or 9 weeks after the second Improvest® dose did not alter pork loin quality and delaying the second Improvest® dose slightly improved pork fat firmness. However, all immunologically castrated pigs had acceptable fat firmness based on current industry standards. In conclusion, gradually reducing the DDGS dietary inclusion was more beneficial than withdrawing DDGS 5 weeks before harvest, and delaying the second Improvest® dose to 5 weeks before harvest captured the greatest benefit of improved lean gain caloric efficiency and did not result in adverse loin or fat quality characteristics.
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    Evaluation of direct-fed microbials and xylanase supplementation on performance and nutrient digestibility in pigs fed high fiber diets
    (2015-04) Manu, Hayford
    The main aim of the thesis is to investigate Direct-fed (DFM) Microbial supplementation alone or in combination with xylanase in high fiber diet on performance and nutrient digestibility in pigs. To achieve this main aim, three experiments were conducted.In study I (I chapter 3), Calsporin® biotechnical feed additive based on viable spores of Bacillus subtilis C-3102 was investigated alone. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of Calsporin® on growth performance; microbial population and carcass characteristics of wean to finish pigs. One hundred and ninety-two (Topigs 20 x Compart's Duroc; 18 d, initial BW (6.7±0.27 kg)) crossbred piglets were allocated two treatment groups in a randomized complete block design. The results showed that supplementation of Calsporin® did not affect (P > 0.05) blood urea nitrogen (BUN) concentration. Calsporin® did not influence (P > 0.05) the final body weight, average daily gain but numerically reduced average feed intake (ADFI) which resulted in a potential to improve feed conversion efficiency during the overall period of study at an inclusion rate of 1.5 X 105/g of diet. The measured carcass characteristics, including hot carcass weight, yield percentage, back fat depth, loin depth, and lean percentage, were not affected (P > 0.05) by the dietary treatments. Calsporin® in the diet did not significantly affect (P > 0.05) the total counts of Enterobacteriaceae, Bifidobacteria and total anaerobes in the feces but Lactobacillus count was reduced (P < 0.05).Key words: Pigs, Calsporin, growth performance, carcass traits, microbial enumeration.In studies II and III different DFMs were used. Study II (Chapter 3) was conducted to investigate the effect of supplementing xylanase alone or in combination with either Bacillus species direct-fed microbials (DFM1) or lactobacillus multi-species direct-fed microbials (DFM2) on nutrient digestibility, visceral organ weight and intestinal morphology of nursery pigs fed high fiber diets in a 14 d trial. Thirty-six male pigs (30 d old, 9.0 ± 0.15 kg) of genotype [(Landrace × Yorkshire (Topigs, Winnipeg, Canada)) × Duroc (Compart's, Nicollet, MN) were allocated to 1 of 6 dietary treatments in a randomized complete block design. Six dietary treatments evaluated were T1, basal diet without xylanase or DFM as control; T2, control supplemented with DFM1 at 500g/MT; T3, control supplemented with xylanase 250g/MT; T4, xylanase (250g/MT) and DFM1 (500g/MT); T5, DFM2 (500g/MT) and T6, xylanase 250g/MT and DFM2 (500g/MT). The study reveal that pigs supplemented with DFM2 recorded an improvement (P < 0.05) in ileal crude protein digestibility, decreased water intake and reduced ileal digester viscosity by 13.7%. Supplementation of xylanase alone significantly improved ATTD of fat, NDF, ADF and numerically improved apparent ileal crude protein digestibility by about 10 percentage units. Dietary treatments did not affect pH of ileal digester content (P > 0.05) but pH of stomach chyme was reduced (P < 0.05) with combination of xylanase and DFMs. Addition of xylanase to DFMs led to a reduction in: organ weight, ileal viscosity, tended to improve villus height, significantly improved villus to crypt ratio and improved ATTD of energy. Key words: Xylanase, Direct-fed microbials, fibre diets, nursery pigs, viscosity and digestibility. In Study III, (Chapter 5) the effect of supplementing xylanase alone or in combination with either Bacillus species direct-fed microbials (DFM1) or lactobacillus multi-species direct-fed microbials (DFM2) on effect of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) concentration and growth performance of nursery pigs fed high fiber diets was studied in a 28 d trial. One hundred and forty-four (18 d old) [(Landrace × Yorkshire (Topigs, Winnipeg, Canada)) × Duroc (Compart's, Nicollet, MN) pigs were allocated to 1 of 6 dietary treatments with 6 replicates in a randomized complete block design. The treatments were T1, basal diet without xylanase or DFM as control; T2, control supplemented with DFM1 at 500g/MT; T3, control supplemented with xylanase 250g/MT; T4, xylanase (250g/MT) and DFM1 (500g/MT); T5, DFM2 (500g/MT) and T6, xylanase 250g/MT and DFM2 (500g/MT). The study revealed that xylanase, DFM1 or DFM2 individual supplementation did not influence BUN concentrations (P > 0.05) but addition of xylanase to the DFMs numerically reduced BUN concentration (P > 0.05). Supplementation of xylanase, DFM1 and DFM2 alone did not influence (P > 0.05) final body weight, average daily feed intake, average daily gain and feed efficiency but xylanase synergizes with DFM to numerically reduce feed intake and improve feed efficiency. Comparison between DFM1 and DFM2 did not affect pig performance (P > 0.05) during the study. In summary, supplementation of DFMs alone did not impact carcass traits and feed efficiency but addition of xylanase to the DFMs numerically reduces: BUN concentration, organ weights, ileal digesta viscosity, feed intake and synergizes to improve feed efficiency during the overall period of study (P < 0.05).Key words: Xylanase, Direct-fed microbials, fibre diets, nursery pigs, BUN and performance.
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    Evaluation of swine liquid feed system with corn - ethanol co-products
    (2014-09) Meried, Woldeab
    Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the use of ethanol co-products, wet distillers grain (WDG) and condensed distillers soluble (CDS), in a swine liquid feeding system. The first experiment was conducted to evaluate the concentration of DE and ME and the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of energy and nutrients in WDG and CDS fed to growing pigs. Six dietary treatments were studied by replacing 15% and 30% of a corn soybean meal basal diet with WDG or a mixture of WDG or CDS. The experiment consisted of 10 days of adaptation and 4 days of sample collection. Our results indicated that digestibility of 15% CDS diet was significantly higher (P < 0.05) compared to 30% WDG diet. DE and ME were higher in CDS compared to WDG. There was no significant difference in amino acid AID of diets. Lysine AID value of WDG was 75% which was higher than reported DDGS values. CDS lysine AID was 58%. Higher lysine AID could be because WDG was not exposed to drying, which reduces lysine digestibility in DDGS. The second experiment was conducted to determine the ratio of WDG to CDS on the performance of wean to finish pigs fed via a computer-based automatic liquid feeding system. Four dietary treatments were compared by replacing 20% DDGS in the basal diet with same percentage (20%) of WDG or combination of WDG and CDS. Treatment 1, 20% DDGS, Treatment 2, 20% WDG, Treatment 3, 17% WDG + 3% CDS, and Treatment 4, 14% WDG + 6% CDS. The experiment was conducted from 2 weeks post-weaning to finishing (126 days on trial), using a 5-phase feeding rogram. The overall ADG was 0.912, 0.934, 0.957, and 0.937 kg/d, ADFI on a dry matter basis 2.47, 2.2, 2.26, and 2.24 kg/d, and gain to feed ratio 0.33, 0.37, 0.38, and 0.37, for Treatments 1 to 4, respectively. Overall ADG was higher (P = 0.05) in Treatment 3 compared with the DDGS group. Overall, pigs fed diets containing WDG and/or CDS (Treatments 2, 3, and 4) had lower (P = 0.001) ADFI but higher G:F (P = 0.001) compared with animals fed the control diet containing 20% DDGS. Thus, WDG and the combinations of WDG and CDS have beneficial effect on growth performance compared with DDGS.
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    Impact of using reduced-fat distillers grains in beef feedlot diets on carcass and meat quality
    (2014-11) Johnston, Justin Edward
    Purebred Jersey steers (n=12) and Limousin X Jersey Crossbred steers (n=24) were blocked by breed. Nineteen purebred Jersey steers (initial BW 455 ± 49 kg) and 29 Jersey-Limousin crossbred steers were individually fed in Calan gates for 93 d. Four dietary treatments were evaluated in this experiment. A dry rolled corn-based diet served as the control treatment. Distillers grains treatments consisted of feeding reduced-fat distillers dried grains dietary inclusion at 20% with corn oil, to represent full fat distillers grains, reduced-fat distillers dried grains dietary inclusion at 20%, or reduced-fat distillers dried grains dietary inclusion at 47% of dietary DM. This study found the following results, Jersey X Limousin Crossbred steers had greater REA and HCW but no differences in the carcass or meat quality attributes evaluated. Feeding reduced-fat distillers grains in replacement of dry-rolled corn did not substantially affect the carcass or meat quality attributes evaluated.
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    Investigation of recycled manure solids as freestall bedding for dairy cows in the Midwest.
    (2011-07) Husfeldt, Adam William
    Abstract summary not available
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    Management, economics, and animal welfare characteristics of large dairy operations in the Upper Midwest
    (2014-08) Evink, Tyler Lee
    Current trends in the dairy industry are for fewer, larger farms. This trend has more recently been continuing in the Midwest United States. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to describe and characterize common management practices, economics, and animal welfare on large dairy operations in the Midwest.
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    Nutritional feeding and management strategies to optimize growth and health in dairy calves.
    (2011-06) Kmicikewycz, Alanna Daria
    Abstract summary not available