The Nutritionist

Dr Akira Saito gave a presentation about using milk replacer in automatic feeding systems. He has also done considerable work with Waygu and Waygu-cross calves to improve growth and later performance. Dr Mike Van Amburgh and Dr Jim Drackley joined Dr Saito for the presentation question and answer period.

Dr Mike Van Amburgh, professor at Cornell University, gave a talk that discussed some components, which he referred to as bioactive factors, that are present in colostrum and transition milk. He discussed research that suggests these components may have strong influences on growth and health of the calf.

Dr Rick Grant, President of The Wm H Miner Institute, spoke about the relationships between undigested fiber, primarily forage, (uNDF240) and physically effective fiber at that same time point (peuNDF240). He has conducted some recent research to further examine the role that those two fiber characteristics can have in how we look at a diet formulation.

Dr Bill Weiss presented about mineral recommendations in dairy cattle. He discussed formulation to meet requirements vs formulating to optimize health and production. Questions were many and varied.

Dr Nicolas DiLorenzo delivered his postponed (due to hurricane) webinar on forage utilization in beef diets. This webinar concluded our 2018 Beef Nutritionist Series.

Dr Trevor DeVries from the University of Guelph talked about ways to adjust nutritional management with the intent of optimizing management to fit natural animal feeding behavior.

Dr Adam Lock, Michigan State University, gave a talk about fatty acid metabolism in dairy cattle. Adam answered question in the morning and afternoon from participants that spanned the globe.

Dr Jhones Sarturi from Texas Tech University specializes in developing strategies to improve, evaluate, and better utilize by products, forages, and grains in ruminant diets.

We were excited to have Dr Danny Fox, Emeritus professor, Cornell University join us in our Groton office for a fantastic talk on beef nutrition models. We apologize for some problems in the recording, there was a fairly intense storm in Groton that day and our internet was affected. You may notice some hang-ups and skips.

Dr Heidi Rossow from the University of California, Davis Veterinary School in Tulare, California, presented her findings on modeling nutrient metabolism and dairy feed management in California. Her primary area of research is in computer modeling focused on systems analyses of dairy feed management and production to develop methods to evaluate cow performance and feeding consistency.