Optimizing Ruminant Nutrition for Sustainable Livestock Production
The overall research goal of our laboratory is to further our understanding of ruminant nutrition to improve the efficiency of nutrient utilization in order to enhance animal production and minimize environmental impact of livestock operations.
Our laboratory has broad interests, which include, but are not limited to:
01.
Understanding the mechanisms that regulate feed intake;
02.
Improving nutrient digestion, efficiency of nutrient utilization and conversion into milk and meat;
03.
Improving microbial growth in the rumen and their contribution to the animal’s supply of nutrients (amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and volatile fatty acids);
04.
Improving the utilization of commonly used feedstuffs, evaluating alternative ingredients and fine-tuning diet formulation, especially within the context of Florida’s agricultural realities;
05.
Improving accuracy, precision, and reducing time and cost of laboratorial methodologies as well as evaluating new experimental techniques both in the lab as well as on the field.