Australian research supports Bovacillus™

A natural feed stable bacteria enhancing feed digestibility and performance.

Australian company Nutriment Health and Danish bacteria company Chr Hansen have led the way in research to develop Bovacillus™ a natural feed bacterium for inclusion in pasture and feedlot supplements for beef cattle.

Bovacillus™ is a combination of natural bacillus bacteria that control some pathogenic bacteria, are heat and moisture stable in pellets, blocks, mineral licks, liquid supplements and beneficial to the soil microbiome.

From a sustainability and environmental perspective, the bacillus spores germinate in the rumen, reproduce exponentially, producing enzymes that enhance digestibility of feeds in the rumen and small intestine, allowing greater nutrient absorption and performance. This allows greater feed utilisation and efficiency, while benefitting the soil microbiome as the spores pass onto the pasture in manure.

Wagyu cattle numbers have grown significantly in Australian feedlots with market reports suggesting Wagyu cattle are utilising >30% of Australian feedlot capacity. Bovacillus™ a natural feed stable probiotic is now widely used in Wagyu feeding programs, reducing, and replacing the need to use antibiotic feed additives.

University Of Queensland studied the effect of Bovacillus™ on nutrient digestibility of forage and high starch concentrates. This work has been recognised internationally with the publication of the results in the American Society of Animal Science. The report states Bovacillus™ improved the mean in vitro Dry Matter and Neutral Detergent Fibre digestibility on 9 out of 10 different grass/forage samples from 17.9% to 34.7%. Bovacillus™ had a significant effect on starch digestibility on all five grain types highlighting the potential of Bovacillus™ probiotic to improve digestibility and utilization in beef and dairy cattle.

Additional research

Australian and international feedlot trials fed Bovacillus™ on high grain diets, non HGP, with and without monensin have resulted in performance improvement in daily gain and feed efficiency. Dairy research comparing Bovacillus™ to non-treated cows in production, showed an improvement of 4.7% in milk production (2 litres/day) and 6.25% in fat yield. This work supports Australian beef producer feedback on improved calf weaning weights and health. At a large North Queensland cattle station, weaned heifers were split into two groups and fed mineral lick over 70 days. The Bovacillus™ treated heifers gained 11 kg more than the control cattle.

( Published in Animal Production Science 2022 ).

Australian research is highly regarded in the USA, Europe, Brazil, and Argentina with Bovacillus™ now being launched in all these markets from initial development feeding Wagyu beef cattle in Australia. Bovacillus™ is being quickly adopted in Australian beef feeding systems including feedlots, production feeding on farm, mineral supplements and blocks used in branded antibiotic free grass-fed programs.

Accurate BREEDPLAN data

Judge an animal's genetic merit across traits

Wagyu BREEDPLAN EBV's allow producers to judge an animal's genetic merit for a range of traits that directly influence profitability. EBV's are extremely useful when comparing and assessing the genetic potential of animals and trait performance data is essential for generating these EBV's using BREEDPLAN.

While the BREEDPLAN model is very complex, the basics by which it works is to directly compare the performance of an animal with the performance of other “similar” animals within the same contemporary group. Put simply a contemporary group can be described as animals of the same sex, of the same birth type, from the same herd, of a similar age and run under the same conditions i.e. animals that have had the same opportunity to perform.

In the Wagyu Quarterly Update 82, page 51 to 54. �� issuu.com /australianwagyuassociation

In this article we discussed recording performance data and what data you should submit at what stage of an animal’s life cycle. To follow this, this brief article will discuss making sure the data you submit is usable by the system and some commons things we see resulting in data not being able to be used effectively. Submitting useful data is extremely important to ensure members gain maximum benefit from their data.

It is important for members to manage their herds such that contemporary group size is maximised and to create genetic linkage within their herd and other Wagyu herds.

Large management groups allow for accurate EBV's as the outside effects are minimized such as difference in management or environment - allowing more of the variation between individuals to be accounted for by an animal's genetics. For example, BREEDPLAN can only compare the weight and genetic merit of steers within ONE management group if they were weighed on the same day under the same conditions (managed as one group from birth).

The effect of contemporary group size on the effectiveness of performance is illustrated in figure 1. As illustrated in the graph, the greatest increase in effectiveness is observed going from one animal to two animals in a contemporary group. That is, a record in a single animal contemporary group is not effective, because it can’t be compared to anything.

A performance record in a contemporary group of two is 50% effective, so starting to contribute useful data. Once five to ten animals are represented in a contemporary group, the added increase in effectiveness diminishes quite rapidly with increasing group size. However, the general aim for all herds should be to maximise contemporary group size if they want to get the most value out of their data.

Calves will be analysed in the same contemporary group if they:

Were bred in the same herd, Were born in the same calving year, Are of the same sex, Are of the same birth number (i.e. single calves not compared with twins), Are of the same birth status (i.e. natural/AI calves are not compared with ET calves), Have been measured on the same day (and have the same measurement history), Are of similar age (typically age slicing is 45 days for birth and 200-day weight and 60 days for 400 and 600-day weight and carcase records), and, Have been run under the same conditions (i.e. animals are in the same breeder defined management group).

How to maximise genetic linkage

1. Use more then one sire (BREEDPLAN requires at least two sires to be represented in the group for the progeny to contribute to the calculation of the EBVs sire)

2. Use a sire used widely in other herds (it is of benefit for you to use sires which are used by other herds to create linkage within a herd, across herds and across years).

Common reasons AWA see why data does not contribute to BREEDPLAN

Male calves getting registered as steers

All male calves should be submitted to BREEDPLAN as males at the beginning of their life. If submitted as a steer, the birthdate is automatically assumed as its castration date. The castration date recorded on the animal influences how the BREEDPLAN analysis assigns individuals to contemporary groups.

Recipient details are not provided for ET calves

Herds that use embryo transfer need to identify at least the breed and age of the recipient dams of ET calves. If the breed of recipient dams is not supplied ET calves are split into single animal analysis groups and therefore their own performance cannot be used to maximise the analysis of ET calves by BREEDPLAN, it is preferable if the recipient dams used are all the same breed.

Accurate birth dates not recorded

Accurate birth dates are essential within BREEDPLAN as they are used to calculate the age of an animal to provide the foundation for 200, 400, and 600 day weights and allows for the comparison of animals of similar ages within management groups. Therefore, birthdate is important to allow BREEDPLAN to accurately adjust the weight of the animals in the group to allow them to be compared. For example, if you weigh an animal at 265 days old rather than 200, the weight can be adjusted back to a 200-day equivalent.

Steers are not registered in the slaughter register

Once castrated, members can submit a castration date to the AWA and the register will be updated. Only calves of the same sex at measurement will be directly compared in the same contemporary group i.e. bulls with bulls, heifers with heifers, steers with steers. It is important to note that males that are weighed initially as bulls and then castrated will have their first weight compared with all the other males and their second weight only with the steers.

Wagyu supply chains can contribute large amounts of data from carcase grading at slaughter back to breeders. For this data to be used to help improve your sires EBVs, the steers need to be DNA tested, parent verified (at least to the sire) and registered in the AWA slaughter register. It cost’s nothing to register steers in the AWA slaughter register and the data can then be used to improve the EBVs of your sires.