Two internationally renowned experts shared their knowledge on ruminant diet formulation as part of the Meet The Expert webinar series hosted by Lallemand Animal Nutrition.
Lallemand Animal Nutrition recently held two virtual events about ruminant diet formulation as part of its Meet The Expert webinar series. Two internationally renowned experts were invited to share knowledge about the rumen microbiome, fiber digestion kinetics, rumen pH dynamics, and how this information can be integrated into diet formulation tools.
Dr. Frederique Chaucheyras-Durand, Research Manager at Lallemand Animal Nutrition – INRAe, brought her ruminant microbiota expertise to the table, while Dr. Emiliano Raffrenato, Consultant at RUM&N – NDS Professional and Assistant Professor at University of Padova, showed how science turns into proactice through the integration into nutrition software. He concluded the sessions by reminding the audience that the ration — and nutritional management — are key to ensuring optimal and consistent rumen fermentation across a 24-hour period, which is what translates into profitability.
The key points shared by the experts during the two sessions are as follows:
- Rumen microbes produce volatile fatty acids (VFAs), which are converted into energy by the animal. Optimizing the rumen microbial populations, or microbiota, can help increase diet digestion and forage utilization, allowing the animal to increase milk or meat conversion and production efficiency.
- Testing and analysis can help determine forage and concentrate ration components. Nutrient needs and digestion kinetics can then be modeled in dynamic and advanced nutritional software, like NDS. Nutritionists can balance the animal’s ration to maximize nutrient utilization for optimal performance. The rumen-specific live yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae CNCM I-1077 (LEVUCELL SC, Lallemand Animal Nutrition) has been proven to positively influence the digestion kinetics of fiber components in the ration.
- Highly fermentable rations — like those with high starch or sugar levels or even rapidly digested forages sources and pasture grasses — are prone to Sub Acute Ruminal Acidosis (SARA). SARA reduces the fibrolytic microbial populations in the rumen and lowers the diversity in the rumen microbiota. S. cerevisiae CNCM I-1077 has been shown to alleviate negative pH effects and to support the fibrolytic and lactate-consuming microbiota.
- Dynamic diet models based on CNCPS equations, such as the NDS platform, can predict the negative effects of a low rumen pH, its influences on fiber degradation and reduction in metabolizable protein. This feature allows nutritionists to make better decisions when balancing rations to maximize rumen efficiency.
- Lallemand now offers access to the LEVUCELL SC submodel within formulation software such as NDS. This submodel predicts the positive effects of including LEVUCELL SC in diets on rumen pH, fiber degradation and animal performance. This additional tool offers nutritionists more flexibility when creating rations that improve farm profitability and economics. Such services offer flexibility for nutritionists to optimize diets and farm economics, including: the value of different sources of fiber, the benefits (or drawbacks) to keeping the same diet with increased diet energy extraction, reduced purchase costs of raw materials or added margin generated for the producer.
Lallemand Animal Nutrition shares the full recording of the event free on its website.
The first webinar shared by the experts focused on fiber digestion: “Fiber digestion kinetics: How fibrolytic dynamics are integrated into diet formulation software”. Next webinar to be released on the same platform focuses on the rumen environment and “How rumen pH affects rumen microbes, animal performance and diet formulation.”
