Tennessee cattle producers may not understand the real benefits of feeding haylage because research on cattle performance and behavior has not been documented. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to determine if there were differences in performance and behavior of feeder calves fed Tall Fescue dry hay (hay) or fescue haylage (haylage). The project began on October 20, 2008 and concluded on December 4, 2008. Total of 60 calves were weaned and preconditioned for 40 d prior to the study. Calves were 222 ± 45 d average age on trial and weighed 209.3 ± 13.3 kg. Breed type and sex were evenly distributed across treatments. Four pens of weaned calves including steers and heifers (n = 15 per pen) were used. Half of the calves (2 pens) were fed haylage and the other half (2 pens) were fed hay. Animals were housed in one of four adjacent paddocks with minimal forage available in each paddock. Each paddock included 1 cone-style hay ring and a water trough. Animal performance (weight and Average Daily Gain [ADG]) were monitored for a 45-d feeding period. Behavior was recorded on d 2, 22, and 41 using a live observation using a 5-min scan sampling methodology over four consecutive hours from 1300 to 1600. Active was a defined as a summation of standing and walking. Inactive was defined as lying laterally or lying on their sternum. Time eating (eating) was defined as the summation of time an animal engaged in head inside the hay ring or grazing. Time at drinker (drinker) was defined as head down inside the water tank. Time at licking mineral was defined as head down inside the mineral feeder. Pen was the experimental unit for both the performance and behavior data. Data were analyzed using the PROC GLM of SAS. PDIFF was used to separate differences at a P-value of P < 0.05. There were no (P = 0.96) differences between d-0 weights or during the first 21-d feeding period between treatments (P = 0.96). There were differences (P = 0.0002) in ADG for the two treatments between d 21 to 45. Overall ADG differed (P = 0.03) for calves fed hay (0.23 kg/d) compared to for calves fed haylage (0.11 kg/d). There were no (P > 0.05) differences observed in the cattle behavioral repertoire for treatment or for the day by treatment interactions. In conclusion, reductions in performance were detected when calves were fed haylage compared to hay but their behavioral repertoire did not differ.

To evaluate the present situation, sow removal and lifetime production was investigated among 132 U.S. pork producers participating in the Datashare program with PigCHAMP. Of the removed sows, 18% only produced one litter before removal, and less than 50% produced five litters. Most sows (32%) were removed due to reproductive disorders and only every fifth are removed due to old age. Of the removed sows 84% were slaughtered, 3% were euthanized on farm and 12% were mortalities found on farm. On average a sow weaned 40.6 piglets during her lifetime. There was a substantial variation between farms. Producers need to be aware of that too high and too early removal of sows result in lower profitability and evaluate their situation.

The antibacterial activity of natural apo-ovotransferrin against E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogenes in model systems increased as the concentration of sodium bicarbonate increased. NaHCO3 at 100 mM markedly increased antibacterial activity of ovotransferrin against E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogenes. Citric acid at 0.5% enhanced antibacterial activity of apo-ovotransferrin against E. coli O157:H7, but 0.5% citric acid alone also showed a strong bactericidal activity against L. monocytogenes. Addition of NaHCO3 negated the strong antibacterial activity of ovotransferrin plus citric acid against the two pathogens. The antimicrobial activity of ovotransferrin was greatly enhanced by acidic pH conditions. Zn-bound ovotransferrin produced a bacteriostatic effect against L. monocytogenes, but Fe-bound ovotransferrin had little or no antibacterial activity against E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogenes. Considering these results, iron bind capacity of ovotransferrin is not the major cause of antibacterial action of ovotransferrin. Previous studies indicate that ovotransferrin directly interacts with bacterial membranes causing a variety of physiochemical changes which affect the survival of microorganisms. Ovotransferrin plus 100 mM NaHCO3 did not exhibit any antibacterial activity against two pathogens in commercial hams, whereas ovotransferrin + 0.5% citric acid suppressed L. monocytogenes in irradiated hams but not in non-irradiated hams. There are some limitations of using ovotransferrin to control pathogens in meat or meat products. To overcome these problems, further studies are needed to determine the mechanisms of antibacterial activity of ovotransferrin and to identify various factors that can improve the antibacterial activity of ovotransferrin.

The occurrence of bovine enteric pathogens and total coliform contamination in streams of 13 Midwestern cow/calf pastures was studied during the 2007-2009 grazing seasons. Water samples (n=1274) were collected biweekly at up- and downstream locations on each stream. Incidence of Bovine Enterovirus (BEV), Coronavirus (BCV), and group A Rotavirus (BRV), and concentrations of total coliforms (TC) were evaluated. The mean incidences of BEV, BCV, and BRV in all samples were 3.91, 1.12, and 0.49%, respectively, over the three grazing seasons. There were no differences between farms for BEV (P=0.1163), BCV (P=0.2977), and BRV (P=0.5040) incidences, and there were no differences (P=0.3023, P=0.5868, P = 0.1008) for the BEV, BCV, and BRV incidences between samples collected from up- or downstream locations. Incidence of BEV in up- and downstream samples were related to cattle presence in the pasture on the day, three days, and four days prior to sampling (P=0.0130, P=0.0283, P=0.0300, respectively), and tended to be related to cattle presence in the pastures two days, five days, and six days prior to sampling, (P=0.0603, P=0.0603, P=0.0516, respectively), but were not related to cattle presence seven days prior to sampling (P=0.2312). However, incidences of BCV or BRV were not related (P>0.10) to cattle presence in the pastures at any time throughout the grazing seasons. In downstream samples, cattle presence in the pasture on the day of sampling only tended (P = 0.0875) to be related to BEV incidence. Whereas, in upstream samples, BEV tended (P = 0.0688, P = 0.0710, P = 0.0710; respectively), to be related to cattle presence in the pasture on the day, and 2 and 4 days prior to sampling. Mean TC were 1269 and 1417 colony-forming units (CFU)/100ml, respectively, for up- and downstream samples. Differences (P = 0.0179) were observed between farms, but not between sites on farms (P = 0.3091), for concentrations of TC. Preliminary results indicate that the timing and management of grazing may be beneficial in decreasing the incidence of enteric viral pathogens and concentrations of TC in Midwestern pasture streams.

Three structural proteins, alpha-actinin, tropomyosin, and a fragment of myosin heavy chain, changed in relative abundance with postmortem aging in the longissimus dorsi (LD), but not the adductor (AD). These results suggest that it is important to release these proteins from the myofibrillar matrix or degrade them in order to increase postmortem tenderness. Determining the process that accomplishes this release or degradation would be the next step in indentifying the vital steps in postmortem tenderization. Additionally, four enzymes involved in glycolysis were found to change in relative abundance during aging in the LD. By establishing a correlation between these proteins and postmortem tenderization there is the potential to use these proteins as indicators of tenderness that could then be used by the beef industry to identify consistently tender beef