source: Farm and Food Report
It may seem like a monumental task University of Saskatchewan’s Murray Drew and his colleagues have embarked upon: finding a variety of barley that has the slow rumen degradability of corn.
However, the Department of Animal and Poultry Science researcher felt it had to be done:
“In Western Canada, producers tend to feed their cattle barley, a type of grain in which the starch gets broken down very quickly in cattle’s rumen. This leads to increased acid production, and eventually to acidosis, a phenomenon that occurs when the rumen becomes acidic. The animal then stops eating and just doesn’t feel well. It can lead to all kinds of problems.”
In the United States, according to Drew, this is less of a problem because producers feed corn to their cattle. Corn has slow rumen degradability.
“We need to find a variety of barley that we can commercially produce, which is more like corn. We know it can be done because our neighbours to the south have already created one: the Valier barley. The problem is that it is not licensed for growing in Canada, and it may not perform as well under our growing conditions.”
Drew and his team have examined all the grain and forage varieties they could find — including commercially grown wheat and barley. They borrowed seeds from Department of Plant Science’s Brian Rossnagel’s collection and tested samples through proximate analysis, which reveals things like energy, protein, ether and fibre content.
“We ended up with a database of information on these different grains, from which we identified winners — 38 good candidates in all, coming out of Brian Rossnagel’s huge catalogue. What we will do now is test these winners in both cattle and pigs to find out how slow their degradability is.”
The way scientists find that out is through feces analysis — a messy, but flawless, investigation process.
The results of the study, funded by Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food’s Agriculture Development Fund, will eventually be made available to growers who will be able to make their own choices as to which grain varieties have the greatest dietary potential in terms of raising healthier livestock.
For more information, contact:
Murray D. Drew
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-2367
It may seem like a monumental task University of Saskatchewan’s Murray Drew and his colleagues have embarked upon: finding a variety of barley that has the slow rumen degradability of corn.
However, the Department of Animal and Poultry Science researcher felt it had to be done:
“In Western Canada, producers tend to feed their cattle barley, a type of grain in which the starch gets broken down very quickly in cattle’s rumen. This leads to increased acid production, and eventually to acidosis, a phenomenon that occurs when the rumen becomes acidic. The animal then stops eating and just doesn’t feel well. It can lead to all kinds of problems.”
In the United States, according to Drew, this is less of a problem because producers feed corn to their cattle. Corn has slow rumen degradability.
“We need to find a variety of barley that we can commercially produce, which is more like corn. We know it can be done because our neighbours to the south have already created one: the Valier barley. The problem is that it is not licensed for growing in Canada, and it may not perform as well under our growing conditions.”
Drew and his team have examined all the grain and forage varieties they could find — including commercially grown wheat and barley. They borrowed seeds from Department of Plant Science’s Brian Rossnagel’s collection and tested samples through proximate analysis, which reveals things like energy, protein, ether and fibre content.
“We ended up with a database of information on these different grains, from which we identified winners — 38 good candidates in all, coming out of Brian Rossnagel’s huge catalogue. What we will do now is test these winners in both cattle and pigs to find out how slow their degradability is.”
The way scientists find that out is through feces analysis — a messy, but flawless, investigation process.
The results of the study, funded by Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food’s Agriculture Development Fund, will eventually be made available to growers who will be able to make their own choices as to which grain varieties have the greatest dietary potential in terms of raising healthier livestock.
For more information, contact:
Murray D. Drew
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-2367
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