Our fifth writing was done by Landon Whitehead. He is a recent graduate of Animal Science from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. He will be continuing his education with a master’s in Animal Science, also from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville.

Ruminant nutrition research and strategies explored

A Monday afternoon oral session regarding ruminant nutrition, chaired by Dr. Agustin Rius from the University of Tennessee, held many different thoughts and strategies for both producers and researchers. 

Topics of interest included the “Production effects of extruded soybean meal in comparison with canola meal in lactating dairy cows” by S.F. Cueva. 

Conclusions presented found that milk fat concentration as well as milk fat yield increased when using an extruded soybean meal compared to canola meal versus a solvent soybean meal. 

Other intriguing data was found in “Effects of feeding method and frequency on lactational performance and enteric methane emission in dairy cows” by L F. Martins. Research conducted found that feeding concentrates separately increased feed efficiency, as well as the potential for decreasing methane production by feeding concentrates separately from forages at a rate of six times per day, versus three times per day. 

In “Feeding spent hemp biomass to late lactating dairy cows: effects on performance, milk production, milk quality, and methane emission” by A. Irawan, using hemp as a feed inclusion saw no detriments to cow performance other than the reduction of butterfat percentage. 

These are just a few of the fascinating aspects of the first day of presentations, with eight other speeches concerning anything from integration of algae based diets and its impact on iodine metabolism, feeding of α-amylase enhanced corn, as well as feeding of Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product to Holstein cows.