2022
The effect of soybean products in ruminant diets on inflammatory response, health, growth performance, and economics
Home
Contributor/Checkoff:
Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board
Category:
Feed
Keywords:
Animal healthAnimal nutritionNutrient management
Parent Project:
This is the first year of this project.
Lead Principal Investigator:
Beth Kegley, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Co-Principal Investigators:
Project Code:
Contributing Organization (Checkoff):
Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board
$50,120
Institution Funded:
University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
$50,120
Brief Project Summary:
Bovine respiratory disease, or pneumonia, often attacks beef cattle — especially calves — under high stress. Farmers rely on antibiotics to help cattle regain their health, but treatment is expensive and calls to reduce antibiotic use in livestock continue to increase. Beth Kegley, animal nutrition professor at the University of Arkansas, explores interactions between diet and health in beef cattle to find ways to manage health without antibiotics. She led a team investigating how soy ingredients may impact stressed calves at high risk of developing pneumonia in this pilot study.
Key Beneficiaries:
#cattle farmers, #nutritionists
Unique Keywords:
#animal nutrition, #cattle
Information And Results
Project Summary

The goal of these proposed projects is to assess how feeding soybean co-products will affect the overall health and growth of stocker calves at high-risk for respiratory disease and possibly modulate the inflammatory response in these highly stressed animals.

Project Objectives

The objectives of these proposed projects are to determine the following:
1) The effect of soybean co-products on the inflammatory response of stocker cattle
2) The effect of soybean co-products on the morbidity and mortality of stocker cattle associated with respiratory disease. 3) The effect of soybean coproducts on the antibody response of stocker cattle to vaccination.
4) The effect of soybean co-products on the growth performance of stocker cattle.
5) The effect of soybean co-products on the economic viability of stocker cattle feeding systems.

Project Deliverables

Progress Of Work

Final Project Results

Benefit To Soybean Farmers

Inflammation among animals in production systems is a long-standing concern, especially among animal feeding segments which maintaining healthy livestock are of the upmost importance. The nature of the system exposes cattle to multiple stressors that increase respiratory disease risk. Respiratory disease alone encompasses a vital portion of economic losses in the beef industry, with 2015 alone seeing $907.8 million in losses associated with cattle succumbing to the disease complex. Because of the significance of health in these high-risk cattle, the inflammatory response has
become a topic of increased discussion as cattle health directly affects growth performance due to the inflammatory response to infection (Richeson, 2018). At this time, there are no studies found that utilize soybean products to impact the inflammatory response in stocker or feeder cattle, which could prove to be a vital market for soybean products. Soybean products, particularly soybean meal, is a primary staple for poultry diets, but the beef cattle industry accounts for only 6.8% of soybean meal use in 2019 and 2020 (ASA, 2021). The successful use of soybean products in this stocker-based research could show a benefit on immune function of high-risk cattle and, in turn, create a more dynamic usage of soybean products among stocker and feedlot operations that incur cattle that are at greater risk for disease spread.

The United Soybean Research Retention policy will display final reports with the project once completed but working files will be purged after three years. And financial information after seven years. All pertinent information is in the final report or if you want more information, please contact the project lead at your state soybean organization or principal investigator listed on the project.