Determination of gas flux and animal performance test duration of growing cattle in confined conditions

Abstract Data from three experiments was analyzed to determine the number of visits and days to assess gas flux (CH4, CO2, and O2), dry matter intake (DMI), and average daily gain (ADG) from growing animals under confined conditions. In experiment 1, 213 animals (461 ± 91 kg initial body weight [BW]) were fed a backgrounding diet and evaluated for 60 d. In experiment 2, 169 steers (488 ± 37 kg initial BW) were fed a finishing diet and assessed for 70 d. In experiment 3, 64 steers (514 ± 42 kg initial BW) were fed a finishing diet and evaluated for 80 d. In each experiment, animals were placed in one pen with one Greenfeed and five SmartFeeds to collect gas flux and feed intake simultaneously. Gas flux was analyzed using data from 161 animals from the three experiments with 100 visits for 2 or more min or 3 or more min. Also, metabolic heat production (MHP) was estimated using the individual gas flux. Daily DMI was calculated as the daily feed intake corrected by the dry matter concentration. ADG was computed as the slope of the regression of the shrunk BW (96% BW) throughout each of the experimental periods. The mean gas flux and MHP were estimated for increasing or decreasing 5-visit intervals starting with the first or the last 5 visits and increasing or decreasing until the full 100-visit dataset was utilized, respectively. Intervals of DMI were estimated for increasing or decreasing 5-d intervals starting with the first or the last 5 d and increasing or decreasing until the end of the experimental period, respectively. Intervals of ADG were estimated for increasing or decreasing measurement period intervals until the end of the experimental period, respectively. Pearson and Spearman correlations were computed between the maximum visits or days and each shortened visit or day interval. The minimum number of visits and days was determined when correlations with the total visits were greater than 0.95. The results indicated that the minimum number of visits needed to quantify CO2, O2, and MHP accurately was 40, while CH4 was 60. A visitation length of 2 min or more or 3 min or more did not modify the gas flux determination. Thus, based on the average daily visitation in these experiments, gas flux data could be collected for 25 d. Additionally, the required days to determine DMI was 30, while ADG could not be assessed in a shorter than 60-d period.