Using live yeast to improve forage digestibility and performance of steers

Northern Australia’s pastoral lands often experience short rainfall for extended periods of the year, hence not being uncommon for cattle to perform poorly, or even lose weight due to low quality of grasses in those conditions. To overcome this problem, producers engage in supplementary feeding, emphasizing the use of small amounts of protein. The addition of rumen specific live yeast (LY) to supplements may increase the use of forage by establishing a healthy gastrointestinal tract and increasing digestibility. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate LY added to a dry lick protein supplement. It was hypothesised that LY would enhance rumen forage digestibility and therefore increase dry matter (DM) intake and average daily gain (ADG) of growing steers consuming a low crude protein (CP) tropical forage.