Flax Provides New Benefits

Researchers are discovering that adding one crop to feed rations can really pay off Sarah Gustin tells us how flax could improve your livestock s health More and more cattle could soon be eating a different type of diet Eric Scholljegerdes Animal Scientist It s an oil seed that hasn t received a lot of attention in the beef industry at least and I think it has a lot of promising attributes Northern Great Plains Research is feeding flax to yearlings Scholljegerdes says flax works great in total mixed rations or when fed as a top dressing Eric Scholljegerdes Animal Scientist It is also very high in protein so it is a good protein source as well as an energy source and if you were to compare this to Corn you know the TDN or the total dgestible nurients of energy for livestock diets it is 2 25 times more energy dense Typically when cattle are on high fat diets they consume less But Scholljegerdes says their results showed no difference in feed intake despite the animals being on a high fat diet Eric Scholljegerdes Animal Scientist Some of the feed lot work showed when they included flax into the diets there was no dfference in feed intake and when you feed a high fat diet you often see a reductoin in dietary intake so I thought that was really intriging Scholljegerdes says ground flax can improve the animal s average daily gain But he says they are feeding the animal the whole seed because it provides more unsaturated fatty acids Eric Scholljegerdes Animal Scientist The fatty acids will offer some improvements in immunity and so receiving young cattle giving them a little more fat a little more energy you are not only going to improve their performance but give them a kick in immne fucntion so they will be able to fight off that sickness Scholljegerdes says flax is a great addition in diets for replacement females and yearling steers Reporting for KX News I am Sarah Gustin Scholljegerdes recommends feeding each animal between one and a half to four pounds of flax per day