Ten Holstein steers (465 +/- 6 kg) with cannulas in the rumen and proximal duodenum were used in a crossover design experiment to evaluate the influence of air-dry vs fresh steam-flaked corn on characteristics of ruminal and total tract digestion. The basal diet contained 77% steam-flaked corn (DM basis). Air-dry steam-flaked corn (SFC-AD) was obtained from a single batch that had been allowed ...

Two experiments were conducted to determine the influence of dietary roughage concentration and feed intake on finishing steer performance and ruminal metabolism. In Exp. 1, 126 steers (334 kg) were used in a completely randomized design and fed (120 d) diets of steam-rolled wheat without roughage or containing 5, 10 or 15% roughage (50% alfalfa hay:50% corn silage). Steers fed 5 or 10% roughag...

This study evaluated the effect of coarse or fine grinding of three forms of corn on the performance of lactating cows. Six diets, fed as total mixed rations, were identical except for the corn portion of the diet. Corn treatments were dry shelled corn, high moisture ensiled ear corn, and high moisture ensiled shelled corn, either coarsely or finely ground. The experimental design was a 6 x 6 L...

One primiparous and 3 multiparous lactating Holstein cows fitted with ruminal and duodenal cannulas were used in a 4 x 4 Latin square design to determine the efficacy of adding urea to a corn silage-based diet on ruminal fermentation and microbial protein synthesis. Dietary treatments were 0, 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9% urea in diet dry matter (DM); urea was manually top dressed and incorporated into th...

This study investigated the effects of acarbose addition on changes in ruminal fermentation characteristics and the composition of the ruminal bacterial community in vitro using batch cultures. Rumen fluid was collected from the rumens of three cannulated Holstein cattle fed forage ad libitum that was supplemented with 6 kg of concentrate. The batch cultures consisted of 8 mL of strained rumen ...

Two experiments evaluated digestive and performance effects of field pea-based creep feed in nursing calf diets. In Exp.1, eight nursing steer calves (145 +/- 27 kg initial BW) with ruminal cannulas were used to evaluate effects of supplementation and advancing season on dietary composition, intake, digestion, and ruminal fermentation characteristics. Treatments were unsupplemented control (CON...

Fermentation characteristics were measured and numbers and distribution by genera of ciliate protozoa were determined in ruminal fluid samples collected from 10 ruminally cannulated steers during the first 30 d of their being fed barley-based diets containing 62% (Medium Barley) or 95% (High Barley) barley grain (DM basis). Ruminal samples were collected at 5-d intervals over the 30-d periods b...

Previous work has shown the percentage of encapsulated bacteria increased when cattle were placed on a feed-lot bloat type diet (Jacobson et al., 1957) and a recent investigation has shown Streptococcus bovis and Peptostreptococcus elsdenii increases in numbers as the onset of bloat symptoms occurred in cases of feed-lot bloat (Gutierrez et al., 1959). Slime produced by ruminal microorganisms i...

Rates of production and oxidation of ruminal acetate were measured in young sheep (1) infected with T. colubriformis; (2) kept worm-free and pair-fed to (1); and (3) kept worm-free and given feed ad lib. Both voluntary food consumption and the production rate of acetate were reduced by up to 76 per cent in sheep on treatment (1) compared with (3). Acetate production rate was 30 per cent lower i...

Thiopeptin, thiopeptin-like antibiotics and penicillin were shown previously to be highly active in vitro against Streptococcus bovis, the microorganism believed to be responsible for the initiation of ruminal lactic acidosis. The purpose of this work was to determine the efficacy of these antibiotics in preventing lactic acidosis in lambs challenged by intraruminal administration of ground whe...