Mike.............Juan, I went to a seminar last year on "Feeding the Bugs" in cattle. The speaker said there were 2 distinct strains of cattle rumen bugs. One for starch and one for roughage (cellulose). He went on to say that the two are basically incompatible, or, they do not get along well in the same rumen environment Thus the reason for either feeding a cow on full feed or feed them only 3-5 lbs of grain per day. You will always have both but one will always be predominant above the other.
It usually takes a month to convert cattle from one bug to the other and for her to become adjusted and gaing well. This is why there is always a "warm-up" period at the feedyard or in a bull test.
A little experiment for the nonbelievers......Feed your cows 5 lbs. of corn per day then turn some hogs in behind them.the hogs will eat the cow manure and get ,shall we say "hog fat"? All that nice starch going thru like $hit thru a goose.
