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Welcome to The Blue Ribbon - Youth Livestock Projects blog. The purpose of this blog is to provide information, advice and suggestions for improving youth livestock projects from multiple sources. The information, advice and suggestions in this blog come from professional agricultural educators who have multiple years of experience working with youth and their livestock projects. If you ever have a question or a particular subject you would like addressed, please feel free to contact Scott Stinnett via email, or leave a comment and we will do our best to assist or address the subject. Should the question or subject be more technical, we will help direct you to an appropriate resource for the best possible answer.

Thank you,

Scott Stinnett and The Blue Ribbon Contributors

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Be Nice to the Bugs!

     Three major livestock projects are ruminant species: cattle, sheep and goats. A ruminant animal has a unique digestive system where instead of a stomach like we have there are four compartments. The largest compartment is the rumen and why they are called ruminant animals.

     The rumen does not actually do any digestion but acts as an environment for some special little critters to do some digestion for the animal. Living in the rumen are trillions and trillions of micro-organisms we lovingly refer to as “bugs”. They include bacteria, fungi and protozoa who like to digest the grass, hay and grain the cattle, sheep or goat eats. In just 1 ounces of fluid from the rumen there are over 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) micro-organisms living and digesting food.

     The rumen provides a perfect environment for these bugs. Inside the rumen it is warm (near or above 100 degrees), it is dark (sunlight can’t get inside an animal), moist (the rumen is full of water), free of oxygen (the air they breath should be in the lungs) and has a proper pH level (slightly acidic is best). And most importantly, there is food to eat! When a ruminant animal takes a bite of grass, hay or grain, it travels down the esophagus and to the rumen. The bugs in the rumen start breaking down these items into simpler nutrients the animal can absorb and use.

     Since these little critters are helping to provide nutrients to your livestock you need to be nice to them. First, they are picky eaters and like certain foods. Some may like parts of grass and hay, others like to eat parts of grain. The more of a specific food they get, the larger the population of those type of bugs are in the rumen. If what the animal eats changes rapidly, the bugs may not be ready.

     Let’s say you go take your animal from grazing on grass and start them on a grain diet. In the rumen, the grass eating bugs begin to starve and die out, and there are not enough bugs present to digest all the grain they now have to eat. Your animal then gets some digestive troubles. They may go off feed, bloat or get the scours because they do not have the micro-organisms in the rumen to digest the food they are eating. Not Good! To be good to these bugs, feed changes should be made slowly. Going from grass and/or hay to grain should be done over 10 to 20 days by slowly feeding a little bit more grain every day and taking away a little of the hay or grass. You can also help to introduce a new population of bugs by giving your animal probiotics.

     Another common problem I see is animals not getting enough water. The bugs in the rumen need water to do their digestive work. Some like to be on the surface of the rumen fluid and others down below. If an animal becomes dehydrated, some of the bugs can begin to die, again leading to more troubles. Be sure animals have access to good, clean water at all times.

     The last thing to remember is be consistent in your feeding. The bugs do not have long lives and cannot wait long periods to be fed. And they cannot handle a sudden increase in feed either. You need to be consistent in your feedings. Feed the correct amount of feed twice daily at intervals that are 8 to 12 hours apart. If you run out of feed and miss a feeding, do not double up on the next one. It can create the same problems as a sudden change in feed. If you need to be gone, do not feed too quickly between feedings. Try and find someone to feed for you at your normal time. They may need the same help in the future, so you can trade this chore out.

Remember, take care of those bugs who are taking care of your animals.

Scott Stinnett
Extension Agent
Kit Carson County
Golden Plains Area
Colorado State University Extension
 

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