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Energy-dense Forages

Specific forages have potential to develop early marbling cells in young calves.

Clayton Robins was part of a team from Canada that went to Argentina in 2008 to look at the forage-fed beef industry.


“We spent most of our time with Dr. Anibal Pordomingo, a renowned beef and forage scientist. He showed us a slide demonstrating plant water-soluble carbohydrate (sugar) levels in cereals as they advance physiologically,” says Robins. “As the sugars changed, they looked at animal gain. There was a linear relationship. As the sugars went up, animal gains went up to impressive levels. We had been struggling with how we could make forage finishing work as part of our research program.”


Robins visited several regions in 2013 that use longer grazing times than used in the United States, and more emphasis is placed on plant sugars and other forms of readily metabolized energy in the plant. North Americans tend to focus more on fiber, he explains. He looked at plants other countries were using and the influences those plants have on ruminant digestive efficiency.


He elaborates, “One of the interesting things that has phenomenal potential, if we can make it work, is the ability to initiate early development of marbling cells in young, developing animals. A lot of that work at this point has been done with early-weaned calves fed high-energy diets, but I think we can get that same effect under grazing, with that calf still on the cow — rather than feeding grain or some other high-energy supplementation. It does require a sustained supply of high levels of energy to trigger the phenotypic and physiological responses.”


Researchers are starting trials in New Zealand, using energy-dense forages to determine that potential. These studies are assessing early-weaned calves (beef and dairy) eating forage instead of concentrates/grain to achieve these results.


“They will be evaluating impact on carcass quality and earlier time of slaughter — with the expectation of improved marbling,” he says.


He is now looking at species like tetraploid Italian ryegrasses (which are capable of accumulating the greatest amount of plant sugars of all the grasses) along with chicory, forage plantain, and a few legumes.


He’s also trying to create a crop of annuals that will grow all year long, using cereals but adding an understory of ryegrasses, chicory, plantains and clovers, and then early harvesting the cereal and leaving it in the field. “We leave the bales in the field for cattle to utilize later, and let the understory crop regrow for later grazing,” he explains.


The field can be strip-grazed, opening the bales up for the cattle instead of leaving swaths. The baled forage holds quality better and doesn’t deteriorate as much as it would in the swath if there is rainfall.


“I have been working with ryegrass and chicory so far, hoping to bring in some plantain. Another grass I am really interested in is festolium, which is a cross between ryegrasses and fescue. There can be various combinations, but the ones I am focusing on are varieties that are 90% to 95% Italian ryegrass and 5% to 10% meadow fescue. This gives it much deeper rooting, with the same leaf expression and potential to accumulate sugars like the Italian ryegrass, but hopefully it will be able to withstand the drier conditions of the Canadian prairie a little better than ryegrass,” says Robins.


He has been growing some of these species and had a decent stand this past year.


“On October 25, which is really late in our part of the world for perennial forage grazing because the plants are dormant and lower in quality by that time, I did analysis of these plants. The Italian ryegrass on my farm on that date was 38% sugar and the chicory was 31%. The TDN (total daily nutrients) was halfway between oats and barley grain,” he notes. The net energy for gain on the chicory, especially, was approaching the Mega calorie per kilogram (Mcal/kg) of grain barley.


“I have looked at many forage analyses in my 22 years as a research assistant with AgCanada in forage and beef production. These are very high levels of energy that I think we can use to stimulate early development of marbling cells. It can help us make improvements in carcass quality of forage-fed beef, compared with what we try to do now,” he says.


“If we utilize them as understory crops to go along with cereal harvest, with lots of yield, we can achieve greater carrying capacity per acre and potential gain per acre will be high. If we can initiate early marbling-cell development, which might take time off the end point for finishing and feeding, then the economics start to look very good. The cost of annual seeding becomes almost inconsequential,” he explains.


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Editor’s Note: Heather Smith Thomas is a cattlewoman and freelance writer from Salmon, Idaho.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





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