Evaluation of animal variability in fibre digestion to improve forage use in beef cattle

• Grant number: 24/16683-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Nutrition and Feeding
• Principal Investigator: Murillo Ceola Stefano Pereira
• Grantee: Robson Crosué Nunes Dinardi
• Supervisor: Gabriel de Oliveira Ribeiro Junior
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Tecnológicas. Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Dracena. Dracena , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Saskatchewan (USASK), Canada
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/14746-6 - Effect of physically effective neutral detergent fiber and starch inclusion on eating behavior, ruminal metabolism and total tract digestibility in finishing cattle, BP.MS

Abstract

Variability in the ability of cattle to digest feed has been considered one of the main factors affecting feed efficiency. Previous work to understand this variability have used residual feed intake (RFI), a measure in the divergence in feed intake from a predicted intake model based on rate of gain and body size to identify cattle with divergent feed efficiency. This project proposes an alternative method to assess the divergence in forage digestion efficiency by directly measuring the ruminal degradation of forages. Previous work by our team to improve low quality forage digestion has determined that NDF digestibility values ranged from 42.2% to 61.1% in cattle fed a barley straw based diet. These results have motivated the current project so that the animal and microbial factors that drive individual animal variability in fibre digestion can be identified. Understanding this phenotype could make a significant impact to the beef sector and improve forage use. Through this research we will obtain Information on: 1) why there is large inter-animal variability in fibre digestion efficiency in beef cattle consuming a common diet; 2) information about the composition and activity of microbial communities in rumen and hindgut of cattle differing in fibre digestion efficiency; and 3) information on how plant cell wall carbohydrates are digested in the rumen of cows that differ in efficiency of fibre digestion. This project will address animal and microbial related factors influencing forage utilization in beef production systems, with a specific focus on improving fibre digestion.