Evaluating individual animal responses to shifts in feed composition for developing individualized feeding recommendations

Abstract

Precision agriculture has emerged as a promising means of improving food production efficiency for field crops. However, measurements associated with most current precision agriculture technologies are single use, discrete, and require follow-up action by humans. In contrast, precision livestock farming requires continuous monitoring of animals and their environment in an autonomous manner, therefore, most current precision agriculture tools have limited utility in managing animal agriculture operations. Most animals in the US and in Brazil are housed and fed in groups. Diets are typically formulated for the average member within the herd. This means that 50% of the animals are always overfed and the other 50% are always underfed. This situation represents inefficient use of resources and lost production. For US dairy farms, remotely sensed rumen pH and milk production data can be incorporated into algorithms that will provide personalized diets for group-housed cattle. Because of the magnitude of the dairy industry in the US and in Brazil, improving feed efficiency has tremendous opportunity to improve economic viability and environmental impact of dairy production systems. This kind of study has tremendous application under Brazilian conditions. Therefore, the objective of this internship is to follow the study about the evaluation of individual animal responses to shifts in feed composition for developing individualized feeding recommendations. The knowledge gained during the internship has the potential to be applied in Brazil in the future. Besides that, during the internship, the urine samples from the experiment conducted in Brazil (Project FAPESP 2016/19667-7) will be analyzed for 15N15N-urea concentration, which is essential to measure the urea recycling of the animals. To accomplish the objective of discussing the results of the experiment conducted in Brazil, we will use the database generated in the Project FAPESP (2016/19667-7), entitled: Effect of different levels and sources of nitrogen on protein metabolism and urea kinetics in Nellore cattle in feedlot. This internship will be a great opportunity to finish the laboratory analysis from the study conducted in Brazil. Also, will be important to improve the quality of the work done in Brazil by present and discussing the data with the advisor abroad. Besides that, the research conducted in Brazil and granted by FAPESP will be internationalized.