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ARS Home » Plains Area » Bushland, Texas » Conservation and Production Research Laboratory » Livestock Nutrient Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #412751
Research Project: Strategies to Manage Feed Nutrients, Reduce Gas Emissions, and Promote Soil Health for Beef and Dairy Cattle Production Systems of the Southern Great Plains

Location: Livestock Nutrient Management Research

Title: Effects of timing of fat supplementation on intake, growth performance, carcass characteristics, and methane emissions of finishing beef cattle

Author
item FOSTER, RYAN - Texas A&M University
item GOUVÊA, VINICIUS - Texas A&M Agrilife
item Beck, Matthew
item PROCTOR, J - Texas A&M University
item LONG, NATHAN - Texas A&M University
item SMITH, J - Texas A&M University
item PRADO, M - Texas A&M Agrilife
item HERNANDEZ, M.A.P. - Texas A&M Agrilife
item PENNINGTON, J - Texas A&M Agrilife

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/27/2024
Publication Date: 8/14/2024
Citation: Foster, R.C., Gouvêa, V.N., Beck, M.R., Proctor, J.A., Long, N.S., Smith, J.K., Prado, M.B., Hernandez, M.A.P., Pennington, J.T. 2024. Effects of timing of fat supplementation on intake, growth performance, carcass characteristics, and methane emissions of finishing beef cattle [abstract]. Plains Nutrition Council Spring Conference Proceedings, April 10-12, 2024, San Antonio, Texas. 2024:137.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Previous research has demonstrated that providing additional fat to ruminant diets can reduce enteric methane (CH4) emissions, while increasing energy intake and subsequent growth performance. However, there has been no investigation into what phase of the finishing period would result in the largest overall effects, when feeding 1.5% of dry matter (DM) as additional fat as corn oil to finishing beef steers. Accordingly, 54 steers were assigned into 1 of 4 treatments, either: no added fat (NO_FAT), 1.5% of dietary DM as added fat for the entire 119-d feeding trial (FAT_total), added fat for only the first 58-d on feed (FAT_initial), or added fat for the last 60-d on feed (FAT_final). We observed no treatment effects on steer body weight, average daily gain (ADG), DM intake (DMI), or feed efficiency (G:F) during the first 58-d on feed, the last 60-d on feed, or across the entire feeding period. There were no observed treatment effects on carcass characteristics, except for calculated yield grade, where the FAT_total treatment had 34% greater (P < 0.01) yield grade than FAT_initial, with no other treatments being different from each other. Furthermore, there were no treatment differences (P = 0.49) for daily CH4 production (g/d), CH4 yield (g CH4 per lb of DMI), or emission intensity (g CH4 per lb of ADG). The lack of treatment effects was unexpected based on previous experiments. However, this may be due to the low dietary inclusion (1.5% of diet DM) of the added fat. Future research may consider treatments with greater dietary fat inclusion levels.