By Grace Thomas, M.Agr.Sc. P.A.S. With 22% of the world’s dairy herd showing signs of lameness and the prevalence of lameness in herds showing little change over the last 30 years (Thomsen et al., 2023), tackling this issue should be a priority for most farms. Lameness not only has a negative impact on animal welfare, […]
What is Southern Rust? Southern rust is a disease caused by the pathogen Puccinia polysora, which produces fuzzy pustules or bumps on the leaves and stalks of corn. Within these pustules are thousands of small orange spores (where the disease name “rust” comes from) that can spread to other corn plants by wind for several […]
By Dr. Adrian Baker, Ph.D. Mycotoxins in feedstuffs fed to growing beef cattle have been of little concern and quite often growing cattle have been utilized as an outlet for contaminated feed. One of the mycotoxins that has been more extensively studied in beef diets is deoxynivalenol, commonly known as vomitoxin. A review of the […]
By Dr. James C. Coomer, Ph.D., PAS Mycotoxins seem to be discussed everywhere in livestock nutrition press these days and it appears mycotoxins are an inevitable part of nutrition now and into the foreseeable future. DSM recently released their December mycotoxin survey, including their corn mycotoxin survey results for 2023. The survey of 123 corn […]
By Dr. James C. Coomer, Ph.D., P.A.S. The word mycotoxin appears to have been first used in a publication by Forgacs and Carll (1955) where they are describing diseases of animals caused by toxins produced by fungi (microbial toxins = mycotoxin). The word usually refers to a structurally diverse family of naturally occurring, fungal-elaborated toxins. […]
By Dr. James Coomer, Ph.D., P.A.S. The 2019 annual meeting of the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) was recently held in Cincinnati, OH with almost 2,000 dairy industry professionals in attendance. There were over 1,100 scientific presentations made either orally or by poster presentation (about 550 of each type). There were over 340 presentations related […]
It’s no secret that the weather in the Midwest has been high in precipitation this year. All of this rain and extra moisture can cause feed and pastures to become moldy. Storage units, bales, and land have all been flooded for months and it doesn’t take much for that water to ruin your livestock’s feed. […]
By Dr. Gene P. Gengelbach, Ph.D., PAS There has been a great deal of concern lately about mycotoxins in the 2016 grain and forage crops. Many producers are surprised because, in many cases, yields were good and there is no visible mold in the corn or corn silage. This article will discuss what mycotoxins are, […]