The availability of growth promotant options on the market today (Table 1) targeted to cattle ranging from young calves to growing and finishing steers provides dairy steer producers the flexibility of designing an implant strategy to meet their goals for an economic return for a specific market niche. Expectations in typical beef feed yards are for a return of $10 to $30 per dollar invested in...

The increased productivity of sows increases the risk of a more pronounced negative energy balance during lactation. One possibility to prevent this is to increase the lactation efficiency (LE) genetically and thereby increase milk output for a given feed intake and mobilization of body tissue. The benefits of selection for LE depend on its heritability and the relationships with other traits o...

Effects of a supplemental fermented agro by-products diet on growth performance, blood characteristics and carcass traits were investigated in fattening pigs. The fermented diet mainly contained 38.0% brewer’s grain, 25.0% rice bran and 21.0% byproduct of king oyster mushrooms. The mixed ingredients were fermented at 40°C for 7 days and fed to crossbred barrow pigs for 62 days. Ninety pigs were...

Livestock farming is directly responsible for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, mainly due to enteric fermentation. Feed efficiency in livestock species generally evaluated through feed conversion ratio (FCR) and residual intake (RFI), which are associated GHG emissions. The aim of this study was characterise FCR RFI relation body traits, intake, feeding behaviour emissions Holstein bulls. Data w...

A semi-field study was carried out to evaluate the effect of two medicinal herbs, individually and in combination, on growth performance, carcass traits, nutrient digestibility and immune response of broiler chickens.  A total of 384 one-day-old straight-run Arbor Acres broiler chickens were allocated into 24 floor pens prepared in a commercial broiler house. Pen-groups were fed one of the foll...

Improvement of feed efficiency can be achieved by genetic selection directly on feed to BW gain ratio or for alternative traits. In the present study, 2 different traits were explored in the growing rabbit and their heritability and genetic correlations with traits recorded between weaning (30 d) and 63 d of age: i) residual feed intake (RFI), to select animals having low ad libitum feed intake...

Residual feed intake (RFI) has been explored as an alternative selection criterion to feed conversion ratio to capture the fraction of feed intake not explained by expected production and maintenance requirements. Selection experiments have found that low RFI in the growing pig is genetically correlated with reduced fatness and feed intake. Selection for feed conversion ratio also reduces sow a...