ALFA pop-up webinar report
On: Thursday June 12, 3024 By Entegra Signature Structures
Long-fed Angus cattle under partial covered housing – and with bedding – have higher feed intake, average daily gain and exit weight.
That’s according to a snapshot of the recent Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) research into partially covered housing systems presented at a recent Australian Lot Feeders’ Association (ALFA) webinar.
Bovine Dynamics’ Dr Melissa George presented the research, conducted at Rangers Valley Feedlot in northern NSW, that studied a total 5178 steers in bedded and earthen pens partially covered by a Ridgeback® and compared them with uncovered, bedded pens.
“To start with, cattle under partially covered housing with bedding had increased feed intake, we had a 0.45kg of dry matter intake per head per day increase for cattle under the shed compared to cattle outside with bedding,” she told the webinar.
“They also had a higher average daily gain of 0.09kg a day and a higher exit weight of 11.1kg.”
The partially covered and bedded group also had a 6.3 kg hot standard carcase weight advantage over the outdoor, bedded pens and were 4.2kg HSCW more than the partially covered group without bedding.
Health data showed the importance of bedding.
“There were significantly higher culls in the sheds (that were) non-bedded compared to the other two treatments,” Dr George said.
“Over two times the number of culls in the shed non-bedded (treatment) compared to others.”
This rise in culls in the group that didn’t have bedding was driven by musculoskeletal issues such as structural incorrectness and abscesses.
The same trend was evident for morbidity.
Bedding is beneficial to musculoskeletal health, Dr George said.
Those with bedding and partial-covering had the highest exit percentage at 98.26 per cent, followed by the group outside with bedding at 96.26 per cent and then the partial-covered group without bedding at 96.23 per cent.
Dr George also told the webinar that research uncovered a difference in average daily gains and feed intake between groups in the study during summer and winter months.
The webinar concentrated on performance, health and carcase results, with Dr George promising a full presentation of the research report – including information about dag score, water intake, washing duration, manure analysis, environmental data and a cost-benefit analysis – at the ALFA BeefEx conference in October.
Learn more about BeefEx
Some of the details:
Check out Rangers Valley https://theridgeback.com.au/blog/projects/choice-underpins-cattle-comfort-at-rangers-valley/
Cost-benefit analysis is a process used to measure the benefits of a decision, minus the costs associated with taking that action.
MLA’s Dr Joe McMeniman told the ALFA webinar that a cost-benefit analysis was useful for those considering investing in feedlot covered housing systems and shared some economic considerations.
Here are some of his top tips.
The beef, pork, poultry and grain industries will gather at Dalby QLD on June 19-20 to explore the future of protein production.
Sustainable governance, biosecurity and food security are just some of the topics that will be covered by expert presenters.
Entegra will be at Protein 2024 – visit the team at booth ……(number in here)
Learn more about Protein 2024
Building a Ridgeback®: The benefits outweigh the cost. The results of the Rangers Valley trial, where partially covered housing in the final 100 days boosted cattle performance – as presented by Dr Melissa George at BeefEx’s R&D session.
ONE global food integrity expert has praised Australia’s feedlot quality assurance program, crediting it for market access benefits and assisting the entire global beef industry’s social licence.
