Test duration for feed and water intake in beef cattle using an Insentec system

• Published in: Journal of animal science 2016-09, Vol.94, p.141-141
• Main Authors: Ahlberg, C M, Krehbiel, C R, Richards, C J, Place, S E, Desilva, U, VanOverbeke, D L, Mateescu, R, Reed, J A, Allwardt, K, Taylor, A, Rolf, M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptability; Beef; Beef cattle; Bovidae; Breeding of animals; Cattle; Cattle industry; Correlation; Data points; Drought; Genotype & phenotype; Guidelines; Homogeneity; Mathematical analysis; Missing data; Phenotypes; Population studies; Water; Water intake; Water intakes; Water purification
• ISSN: 0021-8812; 1525-3163

To understand the effect water has on beef performance and drought adaptability, individual animal water intakes need to be collected. The Beef Improvement Federation has established guidelines for feed intake test duration, but no such guidelines exist for water intake. To establish a preliminary test duration for water intake, individual daily feed intake (FI) and water intake (WI) records were collected for a total of 70 d on 236 crossbred steers using an Insentec system at the Oklahoma State University Willard Sparks Beef Research Unit. Steers were fed in two groups from May to August in 2014 and 2015 and were individually weighed every 14 d. Within each group, steers were blocked by weight (low and high) at the beginning of the study and randomly assigned to one of four pens containing approximately 30 steers per pen. Each pen provided 186.5 m2 of shade and included an Insentec system containing six feed bunks and 1 water bunk. Steers were fed a constant diet throughout the study. Intake records were filtered for reasonableness using parameters for feed and water bunk starting weight, ending weight, and duration. Records collected on weigh dates and days where equipment malfunctioned were filtered to maintain data quality. Average intakes for each animal were computed for increasingly large test durations (7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, or 63 d) to determine the optimum test duration for feed and water intake in this dataset. Phenotypic correlations for each shortened test duration as compared to averages for the full 70 d test were calculated using the correlation procedure in SAS. Minimum test duration was determined when both the Pearson and Spearmen correlations were above 0.90 for each trait. Our results indicated that minimum test duration for both water and feed intake is 28 d. While no values exist for WI tests, the test duration for FI is slightly shorter than other studies within the literature, which may be due to homogeneity in the study population, bunk competition, reduced variation due to missing data points or small sample size. While this calculation should be augmented with additional data as it becomes available, the data would suggest that WI records can be collected within the same time frame as FI records, so cattle can be tested simultaneously for feed and water intake without extending test duration to collect the additional phenotype.