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Sainfoin can help prevent cattle bloat

Sainfoin can help prevent cattle bloat

Researchers have bred varieties that can grow alongside alfalfa

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Alberta researchers have developed new varieties of a legume that can help prevent cattle from bloating.

Dr. Surya Acharya and his team at the Lethbridge Research Centre have bred different varieties of perennial sainfoin that cattle producers can use in their grazing rotations.

Farmers usually grow alfalfa to feed their cattle and for good reason, Acharya said.

“Alfalfa is considered the queen of forages because it’s good for biomass activity and animal performance is very good when (cattle) are fed alfalfa,” he told Farms.com today. “But one major problem with alfalfa is that it causes bloating.”

Cows will gorge themselves on alfalfa when they are hungry but they can’t release the gases afterwards, Acharya said.

The stored gas inside puts stress on the cow’s lungs and can cause them to suffocate. Bloating can cause death in between two and four hours, according to Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

Sainfoin’s digestive characteristics can prevent this issue.

“Sainfoin has condensed tannins and therefore prevents bloating in cattle,” Acharya said. “The tannins bind to the protein in the animal’s stomach and makes (the protein) unavailable for digestion until it reaches the lower intestine.”

This legume can also grow alongside the alfalfa.

“Producers don’t have to completely replace the alfalfa with sainfoin,” Acharya said. “They can if they want, since it does have high yield and compares very well to alfalfa. But even 15 per cent of sainfoin within an alfalfa pasture can prevent bloating.”

watcherfox/iStock/Getty Images Plus photo


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US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”