Precision feeding: LEVUCELL SC fiber-effect to support sustainable cost-effective formulation

With skyrocketing feed prices, tools that can help maintain the profit margin on a farm are critically important. Recently, the Lallemand Animal Nutrition ruminant R&D team added new data to quantify the effects of its ruminant live yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae CNCM I-1077 (LEVUCELL SC) on NDF degradation in a large range of forage samples in vivo. Today, our company has an unmatched database of several hundreds of samples from around the world, representing nine forage types of various qualities.

Trials to evaluate to which extent LEVUCELL SC has an effect on NDF degradability have been done worldwide, which showed an improvement from 2.81 up to 9.36 pts.

This unique dataset allows the company’s partners to get closer to precision feeding thanks to the development of nutritional sub-models. Such models allow nutritionists to fully integrate the ‘fiber effect’ of the rumen-specific live yeast within formulation software.

Now, ruminant experts can formulate rations according to the expected effect of rumen-specific live yeast on nutrient extraction for dairy cows — similar to the way a monogastric nutritionist is able to take into consideration the effect of enzymes in the diet.

It is a valuable tool for nutritionists to precisely adjust rations to maximize income over feed costs (IOFC). This tool offers the flexibility to change raw materials, switch to a new source of non-edible human food, or use low-quality forages to formulate in a more sustainable way either at iso costs or to maintain production.

Aurélien Piron, Technical Manager – Ruminant

“With this tool, the nutritionist is able to predict the effect on animal performance of each specific diet condition (in terms of both composition and ingredient quality). In other words, tell us what your diet composition and ingredient (forage for instance) quality is, the program will tell you what is the response when using Saccharomyces cerevisiae CNCM I-1077 yeast.

 This will allow to really use this rumen specific live yeast as a tool to answer the farm manager’s production objective, and, even more important, in terms of farm profitability. Should I make more milk or should I adjust my diet composition to increase my IOFC ? This is really a game changer at a time of high price volatility conditions.  A software supplier once told me that, with our rumen specific live yeast, we are not only qualifying its effect, but we are able to quantify it, which makes a huge difference and requires important and continuous R&D investments”, explains Aurélien Piron, Technical Manager – Ruminant, at Lallemand Animal Nutrition, who led the project.