The aim of this study was to determine the effect of prepartum somatotropin injection in late-pregnant Holstein heifers on metabolism, milk production and resumption of postpartum ovulation. For this study, 31 late-pregnant Holstein heifers were used. The heifers were assigned randomly into two treatments: (1) 500 mg sc injections of somatotropin (somatotropin treatment, n = 15) at -35 and -21 ...

Context Feed is the largest expense on a dairy farm, therefore improving feed efficiency important. Recording dry-matter intake (DMI) prerequisite for calculating efficiency. Genetic variation of and varies across lactation stages parities. DMI an expensive difficult-to-measure trait. This raises question which time periods during would be most appropriate to measure DMI. Aims The aim was evalu...

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of dietary inclusion of wheat or corn as the main source of starch in prepartum diets on colostrum composition, colostrum IgG1 and IgG2 concentrations, serum IgG1 and IgG2 concentrations of calves and efficiency of IgG1, IgG2 and total Ig absorption. For this purpose, thirty primiparous and twenty multiparous Holstein cows were used in...

Objectives of this experiment were to: 1) determine appropriate test length, timing, and repeatability of DMI, ADG, and efficiency over different biological time points; 2) determine the efficacy of using decoupled performance and intake data to generate accurate feed efficiency measures; and 3) determine the relationship between forage-and grain-feed efficiency measures. Over 2 yr, Charolais c...

Negative dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) diets fed prepartum induce a compensated metabolic acidosis, which stimulates Ca flux before calving and decreases clinical subclinical hypocalcemia after calving. Effects of low or high in these are unclear. Our objective was to determine the effects inducing acidosis amount on urinary mineral excretion serum concentrations during transition peri...

Two experiments examined the effects of a saccharin-based artificial sweetener (Sucram) on health, performance, and dietary preference of feedlot cattle. In Exp. 1, 200 steer calves (initial BW = 190.4 +/- 1.47 kg) were fed a 65% concentrate diet supplemented with or without 200 mg of Sucram/kg (DM basis) during a 56-d receiving-growing period. Feeding Sucram did not affect overall (P = 0.19) D...

This study compared the effects of two levels of crude protein (CP) fed during late gestation on the performance, blood metabolites, and ovarian activity of Holstein cows. One-hundred and six cows (42 primigravid and 64 multiparous) 32 d before calving were divided into two groups and fed diets containing moderate (12.7% CP, 36% rumen undegradable protein, (RUP) or high (14.7% CP, 40% RUP) prot...

Eight ruminally fistulated steers were utilized to evaluate the effects of amount of dried distillers grains (DDG) supplementation on forage dry matter intake (DMI), digestibility, and rumen parameters in steers consuming bermudagrass round bale silage (RBS). Treatments consisted of RBS only or RBS plus daily supplementation of DDG at 0.33, 0.66, or 1.0% of bodyweight (BW). There was quadratic ...