Can Nutrient Synchrony Affect Performance of Forage-Fed Cattle?

Synchrony is defined as to represent or arrange to indicate coexistence or parallel occurrence. Thus nutrient synchrony would imply a parallel occurrence of nutrients for the ruminant animal to consume or be present in the diet and rumen. Thus by supplying energy and nitrogen sources concurrently, an increase or optimization of microbial efficiency should occur. The increase in microbial efficiency then should translate into an increase in animal performance that would not have otherwise been observed if the supply of energy and protein in the rumen had not been optimally synchronized. Increasingly, the need for optimized nutrient utilization to address increasing costs of production and environmental considerations will necessitate opportunities to improve nutrient synchrony.