Beef - Fiber Digestion

• A certain amount of long fiber in the diet is needed to maintain a healthy rumen
  
  
• There is a need to reduce costs and get more milk from forage; increased use of alternative forages typically means there is more fiber in the diet
  
  
• Feeding live yeast results in a higher population of fiber-digesting bacteria (cellulolytic bacteria) and rumen fungi
  
  
• As a result, specific enzyme activity in the rumen is enhanced, which improves digestibility of the forage in the diet and contributes to greater feed efficiency, increased rate of feed digestion, better dry matter intake and feed conversion ratio