Source: TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY submitted to
ECOLOGICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES FOR BEEF CATTLE PRODUCTION IN THE SOUTHERN GREAT PLAINS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
NEW
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1016531
Grant No.
(N/A)
Project No.
TEX0-1-8873
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jun 30, 2018
Project End Date
Jun 30, 2023
Grant Year
(N/A)
Project Director
Pinchak, W.
Recipient Organization
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
750 AGRONOMY RD STE 2701
COLLEGE STATION,TX 77843-0001
Performing Department
Chillicothe-vernon TAMU Ag Res Cntr
Non Technical Summary
The beef cattle industry of the Southern Great Plains is intimately intertwined with the verticality of cow-calf through meat packing segments located within the region. Long-term economic and ecological sustainability the industry will depend on each component of the industry and the natural resources it depends on to adapt to the complex socio-economic and climate changes predicted over the next 25 years. Increasing demands for ecosystems goods and services from an ever-growing human population, necessitate focusing on improving the efficiency which goods and services are produced from ecosystem resources and the sustainability of ecosystems capacity provide both at a local, regional, and global level. Beef industry awareness of complex challenges facing sustainable beef production was captured in the formation of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef in 2010 and subsequent establishment of the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef in 2015.Overall, beef sustainability depends on determining the overall efficiency of a given animal or genotype within a production environment. The cow-calf and stocker cattle segments depend on developing a balance between spatial-temporal variability nutrient supplies, nutrient demands, and nutrient conversion efficiency to support economical beef cattle performance with the need of soils and forage plants to recover from prolonged drought, increased woody plant competition and severe overgrazing. The three dominant grazed ecosystems are native rangeland, introduced pasture and cropland annual forages. These contrasting ecosystems are utilized to provide year-round grazable forage. Each of these ecosystems has been and will continue to be impacted by climate and socio-economic changes. Continued sustainable production of goods and services from these three grazed ecosystems requires a renewed focus on balancing cattle physiologic and nutritional requirements with plant and soil requirements considering changing climatic conditions.Moving forward, a primary beef cattle centric concern of sustainable productivity from these grazed ecosystems is selection of adapted animals based on determining the overall phenotypic efficiency of a given animal or genotype within a production environment. Phenotypic traits are the result of complex interactions among the animal genome, diet, gut microbiome, and environment. It could be argued that residual feed intake (RFI), is an important economic phenotype relevant to sustainability of the beef industry in all environments. Approximately two-thirds of the cost of producing beef is directly related to the expense of feed inputs, so strategies that improve efficiency of feed utilization will substantially improve the economic viability and environmental footprint of beef production systems. Weaber (2012) estimated that the US beef industry could save $1 billion annually by reducing RFI by 10% (equivalent to reducing daily intake by 0.9 kg per animal).
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
80%
Developmental
10%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
1213310107030%
3020799110030%
3033310104020%
3071610101020%
Knowledge Area
302 - Nutrient Utilization in Animals; 303 - Genetic Improvement of Animals; 121 - Management of Range Resources; 307 - Animal Management Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
3310 - Beef cattle, live animal; 0799 - Rangelands and grasslands, general; 1610 - Pasture;

Field Of Science
1040 - Molecular biology; 1070 - Ecology; 1100 - Bacteriology; 1010 - Nutrition and metabolism;
Goals / Objectives
1. Integrate technologies for rangeland, pastureland and cropland restoration strategies under long-term climate change to enhance the sustainable yield of ecosystems good and services from these ecologically impaired ecosystems.2. Characterize and elucidate the role and effect of the bovine meta-ome on nutrition, health and productivity of cattle within a systems biology paradigm in all phases of the Southern Great Plains beef production complex.3. Quantify the livestock production potential and persistence under grazing of cool-season summer dormant perennial forages, annual forages, novel forages, alternative crops and associated residues to develop strategies for successful incorporation into the Southern Great Plains beef cattle industry.
Project Methods
Research ApproachObjective 1. Integrate technologies for rangeland, pastureland and cropland restoration strategies to mitigate long-term climate change in the Southern Great Plains to enhance the sustainable yield of ecosystems good and services from these ecologically impaired ecosystems. A series of collaborative studies will be conducted to ascertain the potential of integrated grazing land and cropland resources in the Southern Great Plains in the face of long-term climate change. Research will focus on determining the scale, distribution and type of management actions required to enhance the effectiveness and longevity vegetation and watershed grazing land restoration practices. Patch-type, placement on the landscape and spatial distribution of patches will be based on existing cattle distribution patterns and the objective of the restoration program. Patch strategies will include: woody plant overstory manipulation (fire, mechanical and herbicide) actions of varying size and distribution and patch enrichment strategies through supplemental feeding locations, artificial shade and alternative watering points. Use of crops and crop aftermath/co-products will be tested for providing alternative grazing resources that would support greater flexibility in grazing management of perennial forage landscapes. Over multiple parities the following response variables including calf birth date, 205-day adjusted weaning weight, cow weight at weaning, estimated months of gestation, and kg of calf weaned per kg of cow weight will be used to estimate the impact of various management treatments on individual cow relative efficiency of production.Objective 2. Develop integrated host-microbiome and animal behavior centric systems biology approach to characterize, elucidate, and translate phenotypic traits for economically relevant traits specific to each phase of the Southern Great Plains beef production complex. A series of experiments from grazing cattle on rangeland and pasturelands through to feedlot finishing and harvest will be conducted to determine the functional mutualism between the animal host and its microbial metabiome and how these interrelationships affect health, growth, product quality and food safety in the beef production complex. Research will be conducted with collaborating scientists and laboratories across North America.The gut microbiome (Genomics, Transcriptome, Proteome, and Metabolome) is the logical adaptive interface for the host animal because the microbiome determines to what degree the genotypic potential of an animal is met within physiological and environmental constraints. All nutrients are variably digested and absorbed through the gut, and each segment of the gut has specific microbiomes that affect metabolism as well as metabolite availability and transport to the animal. Thus, characterization and integration of genomics, metabolomics (plasma, rumen) and microbiomics to understand the biology more fully that underlies phenotypic variation in ERT's is the rational next step in the search for more informative genomic markers and phenotypic biomarkers in beef cattle. Parallel complementary experiments will be conducted to determine the roles of the metabiome and animal phenotypic traits (Jackson et al., 2016) in early detection and intervention to mitigate infectious and metabolic disease impacts to beef cattle industry.Objective 3.Quantify the livestock production potential and persistence under grazing of cool-season summer dormant perennial forages and develop strategies to incorporate these forages into the Southern Great Plains beef cattle industry.Conduct experiments focused on determining the beef cattle production potential, grazing management requirements and most appropriate cattle uses of summer dormant cool season perennial grasses. A suite of experiments will be conducted to determine the grazing tolerance, nutritive, seasonality of beef production and value-added potential of these grasses in the Southern Great Plains. Advanced selections and developed cultivars of summer dormant cool season grasses will be tested in a hierarchical design of small paddock to pasture scales. Forage production and nutritive value dynamics will be determined utilizing hand-harvested sampling. Environmental data will be collected with a recording station to assist in projecting the forage and beef production results beyond the time and place of conducting this research. Vegetation sampling will occur at bi-weekly to monthly intervals during the September to May growing season of these forages. Forage nutritive analyses will include in vitro digestibility, in sacco dry matter and protein degradation rates, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber and soluble protein, acid detergent fiber and macro-mineral content. Two grazing management strategies will be evaluated 1) grazing from September to May and 2) grazing from February to May. Both systems will be managed to utilize 50% of current year's growth by grazing termination in May. Associated beef cattle measurements will include monthly and season long weight gain on an individual animal and land area basis. Stand vigor and survival will be at the beginning of each growing season for 5 years by using live plant stand counts and rate of new growth.

Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Beef cattle producers, ranchers, framers, agency and policy makers are the target audience for our program and were presented with findings of our research locally, regionally, nationally and internationally this past year. Our transdisciplinary research program from gut metagenomics through beef cattle production to animal health and environmental impacts this reporting period was targeted to graduate student education, intellectual property development and presentation of results in scientific journals and scientific conferences. Transdisciplinary outcomes were focused on animal health professionals, gut microbiologists, feedlot cattle managers, probiotic and prebiotic feed manufacturers, horticulturists and global climate change scientists. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Three PhD students successfully completed their programs and graduated. A PhD student received advanced mitigation training and experince utilizing condensed tannins to alter cattle feces greenhouse gas emissions. A PhD student received training in the use of bovine respiratory disease challenge models and statistical process control modeling in the development of precilincal and clinical diagnoses of bovine repiratory disease. A post-doctoral research associate received training in the use advanced bioinformatics for use in very large short-read bovine gut metagenomic data sets. Supervisory Technician learned the use of multiple extraction and PCR procedures. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Eight scientific papers published during the reporting period. Popular press articles were published. Presentations were made at academic and industry professional meetings. One on one interactions with stakeholders with problem specific issues. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Conduct a multi-state genotype x environment beef cattle systems biology experiment where beef genotypes of weaned calves developed over the past 30 years in Nebraska will be characteized for adapatability and performance under contrastingproduction environments of the Northern and Southern Great Plains from grazing through harvest phases. The genome-phenome axis will be characteized from the individual animal genome, transcriptome and metabolome level to the gutmicrobiome community composition, function and metabolism.Research on anitmicrobial resistance (AMR) risk associated with feedlot bio-aerosols will continue. Additional AMR characterization and risk potential elucidation in grazed beef production environments where cattle, migratory waterfall, feral swine and white-tailed deer co-graze hard-red winter wheat fields in the Southern Great Plains will continued.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Bovine respiratory disease is the number one cause of morbidity and mortality in beef cattle and costs >$700 million/year. Three refereed journal articles were published utilizing changes in animal behavior and dry matter intake to predict cattle suffering from bovine respiratory. We conducted follow-on viral-bacterial challenge study to validate previous results and to mine the serum and plasma metabolomes for discovery of potentially useful bio-markers for detection of bovine respiratory disease. Data is currently being analyzed. Livestock meta-omes projects led to two publications describing a novel hypernitrate-nitrite metabolizing anaerobic rumen bacteria and potential applications to mitigating nitrate poisoning and methane emission in beef cattle production systems. Collaborative efforts in the effects of starch feeding to the horse cecal microbiome were published. Initiated dual-use hard red winter wheat studies in Texas and Oklahoma. Texas research contrasts an organic dual-use wheat strategy to a conventional strategy during the transition phase of organic certification. A large-scale multi-state and multi-year genotype by environment meta-omics study was initiated utilizing a common composite beef cattle genotype across contrasting environments and production systems from the far Northern Great Plains to the Southern Great Plains. Data from both of these new initiatives is being analyzed. Previous winter wheat research was published in two journal articles and disseminated to stakeholders through one on one and group discussions.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Latham, E., W. Pinchak, J. Trachsel, H. Allen, T. Callaway, D. Nisbet, and R. Anderson. 2018. Isolation, characterization and strain selection of a Paenibacillus species for use as a probiotic to aid in ruminal methane mitigation, nitrate/nitrite detoxification and food safety. Bioresource Technology, Volume 263:358-364, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2018.04.116
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Malinowski, D. P., J. C. Rudd, W. E. Pinchak and J. Baker. 2018. Determining morphological traits for selecting wheat(Triticum aestivum L.) with improved early-season forage production. J. Adv. Agric. 9:1508-1530, https://doi.org/10.24297/jaa.v9i0.7932
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Malinowski, D. P. , W. E. Pinchak, D.W. Pitta and B. R. Min. 2018. Solar radiation affects bloat potential of wheat forage. ActAgrobotanica 71(4): 1754. https://doi.org/10.5586/aa.1754
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Elizabeth A. Latham, William E. Pinchak, Julian Trachsel, Heather K. Allen, Todd R. Callaway, David J. Nisbet, Robin C. Anderson. 2019. Paenibacillus 79R4, a potential rumen probiotic to enhance nitrite detoxification and methane mitigation in nitrate-treated ruminants. Science of The Total Environment, Volume 671: 324-328, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.390.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: William C Kayser, Gordon E Carstens, Kirby S Jackson, William E Pinchak, Amarnath Banerjee, Yu Fu 2019. Evaluation of statistical process control procedures to monitor feeding behavior patterns and detect onset of bovine respiratory disease in growing bulls, Journal of Animal Science, Volume 97, Issue 3, March 2019, Pages 11581170, https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/sky486
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: William Christian Kayser, Gordon E Carstens, Ira Loyd Parsons, Thomas H Welsh, Kevin E Washburn, Sara D Lawhon, William E Pinchak, John T Richeson, Eric Chevaux, Andrew L Skidmore. 2019. Effects of Mannheimia haemolytica challenge with or without supplementation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii strain CNCM I-1079 on immune upregulation and behavior in beef steers, Journal of Animal Science, Volume 97, Issue 2, February 2019, Pages 596609, https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/sky447
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2019 Citation: William Christian Kayser, Gordon E Carstens, Kevin E Washburn, Thomas H Welsh, Sara D Lawhon, Sanjay M Reddy, William E Pinchak, Eric Chevaux, Andrew L Skidmore. 2019. Effects of combined viral-bacterial challenge with or without supplementation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii strain CNCM I-1079 on immune upregulation and DMI in beef heifers, Journal of Animal Science, Volume 97, Issue 3, March 2019, Pages 11711184, https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/sky483
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ashley N Wolford, Josie A Coverdale, Jessica L Leatherwood, William E Pinchak, Robin C Anderson, Tryon A Wickersham. 2019. Influence of housing type on the cecal environment of horses, Translational Animal Science, Volume 3, Issue 2, March 2019, Pages 877884, https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txz030


Progress 06/30/18 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Beef cattle producers, ranchers, framers, agency and policy makers are the target audience for our program and were presented with findings of our research locally, regionally, nationally and internationally this past year. Our transdisciplinary research program from gut metagenomics through beef cattle production to animal health and environmental impacts this reporting period was targeted to graduate student education, intellectual property development and presentation of results in scientific journals and scientific conferences. Transdisciplinary outcomes were focused on animal health professionals, gut microbiologists, feedlot cattle managers, probiotic and prebiotic feed manufacturers, horticulturists and global climate change scientists. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Four PhD level graduate students were mentored, particpated in professional meetings, and received training in next-generation analytics. Senior Technician received extensive training in metagenoimic DNA extraction, quality contorl, primer testing, gel electrophoresis and qPCR analysis of various environmental sample types. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Popular press articles were published. Presentations were made at academic and industry professional meetings. One on one interactions with stakeholders with problem specific issues. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Conduct a multi-state genotype x environment beef cattle systems biology experiment where beef genotypes of weaned calves developed over the past 30 years in Nebraska will be characteized for adapatability and performance under contrasting production environments of the Northern and Southern Great Plains from grazing through harvest phases. The genome-phenome axis will be characteized from the individual animal genome, transcriptome and metabolome level to the gut microbiome community composition, function and metabolism. Research on anitmicrobial resistance (AMR) risk associated with feedlot bio-aerosols will continue. Additional AMR characterization and risk potential elucidation in grazed beef production environments where cattle, migratory waterfall, feral swine and white-tailed deer co-graze hard-red winter wheat fields in the Souther Greaa Plains will be initiated.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Developing accurate and reliable biomarkers and genomic markers to improve RFI by 10% which would save $1 billion/year, improve average cow production longevity by 2 years that would save $1billion, and decrease ruminant enteric methane production 10%/year. Bovine respiratory disease is the number one cause of morbidity and mortaility in beef cattle and costs >$700 million/year. Early disease detection and effective first treatment intervention could decrease these costs by 25 to 50%.Paenibacillus 79R4 hypernitrate and hypernitrite denitrifying bacteria decreases risk of nitrate toxicosis and allows feeding of nitrate to reduce enteric methane production (25%) from cattle. Cost benefit analyses depend on the value of decreased enteric methane loading to the atmosphere. Nitrate/nitrite toxicosis economic impacts occur across a continuum of impaired fertility, reduced productivity and death. Drought exacerbates risk.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Latham, E., W. Pinchak, J. Trachsel, H. Allen, T. Callaway, D. Nisbet, and R. Anderson. 2018. Isolation, characterization and strain selection of a Paenibacillus species for use as a probiotic to aid in ruminal methane mitigation, nitrate/nitrite detoxification and food safety. Bioresource Technology. 358-364.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Latham, E. A., J. C. McCann, K. K. Weldon, T. A. Wickersham, J. C. Coverdale, and W. E. Pinchak. 2018. Responses in the rumen microbiome of Bos taurus and Bos indicus steers consuming rice straw and supplemented with protein. Journal of Animal Science. 96:1032-1044.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Kayser, W. C., G. E. Carstens, I. L. Parsons, T. H. Welsh, K. E. Washburn, S. D. Lawhon, W. E. Pinchak, J. T. Richeson, E. Chevaux, and A. L. Skidmore. 2018. Effects of Mannheimia haemolytica challenge with or without supplementation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii strain CNCM I-1079 on immune upregulation and behavior in beef steers. Journal of Animal Science Published on line 28 November 2018 .
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2018 Citation: Kayser, W. C., G. E. Carstens, K. S. Jackson, W. E. Pinchak, A. Banerjee, and Y. Fu. 2018. Evaluation of statistical process control procedures to monitor feeding behavior patterns and detect onset of bovine respiratory disease in growing bulls. Accepted with minor revisions 16 November 2018. In Press
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Latham, E. A., W. W. Gentry, J. S. Jennings, and W. E. Pinchak. 2018. Microbial population and function in rumen liquid and solid fractions of steers fed corn-based wet distillers grains, sorghum-based wet distillers grains or CaOH treated sorghum-based wet distillers grains finishing diets. Submitted, reviewed and under revision. BMC Microbiology.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Fontenot, L.R., W. C. Kayser, G.E. Carstens, W.E Pinchak, P. Pinedo, J. T. Richeson. 2018. Utility of statistical process control algorithms for preclinical detection of bovine respiratory disease in feedlot cattle based on deviations in physical behavior (IceTag). Abstract. Proceedings of the Plains Nutrition Council, April 2018, San Antonio, Texas.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Norris, A. B, L.O. Tedeschi, K.D. Casey, J.C.B. Dubeux, J.L. Foster, J.P. Muir and W.E. Pinchak. 2018. Effects of Feeding Different Levels of Quebracho (Schinopsis balansae) Extract in a High-Roughage Total Mixed Ration on Manure Gas Emissions. J. Anim. Sci. 96(Suppl1):19-20
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Norris, A.B., W.L. Crossland, L.O. Tedeschi, J.L. Foster, J.P. Muir, and W.E. Pinchak. 2018. Effect of differing rates of Quebracho (Schinopsis blansae) extract fed in a limit fed high roughage TMR upon digestibility and nitrogen balance. American Society of Animal Science-Canadian Society of Animal Science Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada, Jul. 8-12. (Abstr.)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Norris, A.B., L.O. Tedeschi, K.D. Casey, J.C.B. Dubeux, J.L. Foster, J.P. Muir, and W.E. Pinchak. 2018. Quebracho (Schinopsis balansae) extract in beef cattle fed high-roughage total mixed ration affects manure gas emissions. International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores, Clermont-Ferrand, France, Sept. 2-6.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: C Warzecha, J Coverdale, J Janecka, T Wickersham, W Pinchak, J Leatherwood, J McCann. 2018. 467 Long-term effects of concentrate feeding on the equine cecal microbiome. Journal of Animal Science 96(suppl_3):249-249. DOI: 10.1093/jas/sky404.544
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Malinowski, D. P., J. C. Rudd, W. E. Pinchak and J. Baker. 2018. Determining morphological traits for selecting wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) with improved early-season forage production. J. Adv. Agric. 9:1508-1530.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Malinowski, D. P. , W. E. Pinchak, D.W. Pitta and B. R. Min. Solar radiation affects bloat potential of wheat forage. Act Agrobotanica.