“We all know the importance of getting youngsters off to a good start if they are to reach their potential,” he says. “Feeding a diet that includes Levucell live yeast can help do that and secure better growth rates later too.”
It all starts with rumen development in the early days and weeks of a lamb or calf’s life, he explains. “Right from the start Levucell can play a part, supporting rumen development by encouraging feed intakes and promoting the growth of rumen papillae. This helps the rumen to work more effectively and increases feed utilisation to enable youngstock to get off to a flying start.”
Levucell reduces the amount of oxygen in the rumen, he continues. “This promotes the anaerobic conditions required by other desirable rumen microflora. It also acts to mop up lactic acid, stabilising the rumen pH. Other processes that Levucell supports include increasing the rumen’s microbial biomass and its synthesis of protein and vitamins and contributing to improved fibre digestion.
Throughout the animal’s life Levucell will stabilise the pH of the rumen and help it to maintain anaerobic conditions. This can help beef cattle transitioning to different diets and will reduce the risk of acidosis in cattle fed high energy high starch diets.
“Other benefits our customers have reported include less scouring, better condition and rumen fill and that it helps reduce growth checks caused by changes to diet or environment. In summary, Levucell helps the rumen works better and means the animal digests its food more thoroughly, getting the most out of every bite,” he adds.
When fed to ewes in late pregnancy improvements reported by ForFarmers customers include reduced incidence of prolapse. This is particularly true for ewes carrying multiple lambs, he says. “As it helps speed up fibre digestion feeding Levucell relieves the pressure inside the ewe and reduce risk of prolapse.”
The benefits are then also passed on to the resulting lambs, he says. “Research in France has shown that feeding live yeast to pregnant ewes leads to higher birth weights, more robust lambs and the ewes have higher IgG concentrations in their colostrum which ensures improved immune transfer to their lambs too.
“It improves performance across all stages of production,” he concludes. “Increased feed efficiency and improved growth across the board makes it well worth considering.”
