Metabolisable energy content of a feed or its components has been used to assess its feeding value for ruminants. The demonstration that VFA energy could, at times, be used highly inefficiently when included in a roughage diet, led to the suggestion that feeds for ruminants should be evaluated in terms of their net energy. The establishment of calorimetry technology in nutritional research was ...

Most breeding programs have focused on improving economically relevant output traits such as growth, carcass quality and fertility to enhance the economic viability of beef production systems. Generally absent from current breeding programs in the U.S. are avenues for exploiting genetic variation in feed efficiency, even though reductions in feed inputs would substantially improve profitability...

Intensive selection of sires is possible by using artificial insemination; coupled with accurate measurement of a potential sire’s genetic value, this has markedly improved genetics for easily measured traits like milk production and type traits. Increased milk production has in turn increased gross feed efficiency through dilution of maintenance. Additional genetic gains in feed efficiency wou...

This study was designed to evaluate efficacy of polyherbal hypocholesterolemic supplement AV/HLP/16 (test compound) on serum and egg yolk cholesterol levels and egg quality parameters in layers. One hundred and twenty healthy White Leghorn (BV 300 strain) of 54 weeks age were randomly divided into four treatments (T 0 , T 1 , T 2 , T 3 ); subdivided into three replicates with ten birds in each ...

Feed costs represent greater than 50% of the costs of producing milk. Several practical strategies have been applied to help minimize costs, including reduced feed losses during storage, reduced shrink at feed out, and determining favorable pricing for commodity feeds. Much less attention has been directed towards improving feed efficiency in dairy cattle. Although recognized as an important co...