A five-year collaborative research project aiming to optimise beef nutrition is expected to lead to a major overhaul of beef feeding guidelines.
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) Beef and Lamb has announced it will fund the study following the outcome of an industry review suggesting current guidelines could be out-of-date.
Evidence suggests that current guidance underestimates nutritional requirements in a number of areas.
Funded by AHDB Beef and Lamb, the collaborative ‘Feed into Beef’ project is being led by the Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL), in partnership with Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI).
The project will focus on:
- Prediction of fed intake for different feeds;
- Energy requirements;
- Protein requirements;
- Prediction of growth;
- Prediction of carcase composition;
- Feed value tables and additional new feeds; and
- Incorporating on-farm animal performance data into predictions of requirements.
Dr. Mary Vickers, AHDB senior scientist, said: “It is 25 years since the last major update to the guidance was published and both animal genetics and feeding systems have changed a lot since the underpinning data was recorded in the 1980s.
Changes in market specifications, with major meat processors seeking younger animals with lighter carcases but with similar fat cover, is another key reason to update nutritional guidelines.
CIEL is working with a range of academic and industry partners to harness the best of current science and align it with industry needs.
Both AFBI and SRUC have run studies on intake, growth and emissions from beef cattle over recent years.
Research
The large amount of data from these studies, alongside new concepts taken from overseas work, will be used to update models of feed intake, energy and protein requirements, rumen function, growth and body composition.
Other areas of work within the project will develop and update the feed values needed to run nutritional models, as well as exploring ways to include the increasing amount of farm-collected information in the rationing process.
Dr. Vickers said: “The project is still in the early stages but has been shaped to bring together industry, academic and commercial players across the beef industry to deliver a nutritional model that will enable beef farmers to increase production efficiency, reduce the feed cost and improve the environmental impact of beef production.”
Industry members are currently sought to join the industry advisory group, which will advise researchers and aid the development of models that will serve the industry well into the future.
An open meeting in November will outline project scope in more detail and address questions potential partners may have.
