Check out this segment from Dr. Paul J. Weimer, from the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, as he dives into his first segment of a four part series on Megasphaera elsdenii & Milk Fat Depression: A good bug gone bad. This is an evolving story, that will hopefully lead us to a solution that is a significant economic problem for the dairy industry.
What you will learn:
- Are specific rumen microbes associated with milk fat depression?
- How different rumen microbe populations respond to varying levels of starch degradability and monensin.
Rather read than watch?
What's next?
Keep an eye out for more from Dr. Weimer as he continues his series exploring the effects of rumen microbes on milk fat synthesis. His upcoming segments will cover rumen pH effects related to M. elsdenii, ruminal dosing to establish if M. elsdenii is a causative agent of MFD, and lastly a summary of experiments and future direction.
U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, USDA Agricultural Research Service
Dr. Paul Weimer received his BS in Biology from Carroll College (WI), and MS and PhD in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After 10 years at the Central Research and Development Department at DuPont, he joined the USDA-ARS Dairy Forage Research Center in Madison, WI in 1988. His research interests include rumen microbiology and the role of rumen microbes in determining milk composition and feed efficiency; microbial fiber degradation; and microbial production of volatile fatty acids.
