South Korea has a temperate climate with four distinct seasons. However, summers are extremely hot and humid, which negatively affects industrial animal production. Hanwoo are native cattle that have traditionally been raised in the natural environment of Korea. The present study investigated the effects of birth and lactation season on the birth and weaning weights of Hanwoo calves. Data were collected from 100 local breeding farms between 2016 and 2021. A total of 56,970 (males, 29,530; females, 27,440) Hanwoo calves were classified according to sex or birth and weaning season (March–May, spring; June–August, summer; September– November, fall; and December–February, winter). The birth weight of Hanwoo calves differed according to the birth season. As such, birth weight of the summer-born calves was the lowest. Additionally, the 90-day weaning weight was positively correlated with birth weight. Interestingly, however, the 90-day weaning weight was not related to the birth season but was related to the 2-month seasonal effect during the lactation period. Furthermore, the 90-day weaning weight was the lowest during the summer lactation period. In the beef cattle industry, daily weight gain is an important economic characteristic related to feed efficiency and growth. Our findings will contribute the management of Hanwoo cattle and analysis of changes in economic characteristics due to high temperatures.

Bovine mammary epithelial (MAC-T) cells are commonly used to study mammary gland development and mastitis. Lipopolysaccharide is a major bacterial cell membrane component that can induce inflammation. Autophagy is an important regulatory mechanism participating in the elimination of invading pathogens. In this study, we evaluated the mechanism underlying bacterial mastitis and mammary cell death following lipopolysaccharide treatment. After 24 h of 50 μg/mL lipopolysaccharide treatment, a significant decrease in the proliferation rate of MAC-T cells was observed. However, no changes were observed upon treatment of MAC-T cells with 10 μg/mL of lipopolysaccharide for up to 48 h. Thus, upon lipopolysaccharide treatment, MAC-T cells exhibit dose-dependent effects of growth inhibition at 10 μg/mL and death at 50 μg/mL. Treatment of MAC-T cells with 50 μg/mL lipopolysaccharide also induced the expression of autophagy-related genes ATG3, ATG5, ATG10, ATG12, MAP1LC3B, GABARAP-L2, and BECN1. The autophagy-related LC3A/B protein was also expressed in a dose-dependent manner upon lipopolysaccharide treatment. Based on these results, we suggest that a high dose of bacterial infection induces mammary epithelial cell death related to autophagy signals.

The present experiment was designed to investigate the effects of extruded linseed supplementation on methane production in Holstein steers. Four Holstein steers fitted with permanent cannulas were assigned to two dietary treatments in a duplicated 2 × 2 Latin square design: a control diet consisting of tall fescue straw (65%) and concentrate (35%), and a treatment diet supplemented with 3.8% extruded linseed by replacing a part of ingredients in the concentrate of the control diet. The concentrates of the control and the treatment diet were isoenergetic and isonitrogenous. Extruded linseed supplementation did not affect dry matter intake but significantly (P<0.05) increased the intake of lipid. Rumen pH was significantly (P<0.05) lower for control than for treatment. Although there was no significant difference between treatments, the concentration of total VFA in control was 21% higher than in treatment. The concentrations of acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid were not different between treatments. Extruded linseed supplementation significantly (P<0.05) reduced methane output(g/d) and emission factor. Methane conversion rate was lower for treatment than for control but no significant difference was found. The results of the present study showed that extruded linseed supplementation in the diet of Holstein steers could reduce methane output.

The objective of this study was to determine how feeding forage and concentrate separately (SF) or as a total mixed ration (TMR) affects enteric methane production of cattle. Six Holstein steers (203 ± 22.5 kg) were used in a 2 × 3 changeover design experiment. Experimental diets (TMR and SF) consisted of compound feed, timothy hay and soybean curd residue in a ratio of 40:48:12, respectively, and diets were fed at 10% of metabolic body weight, on an as-fed basis. There were no differences in dry matter intake and enteric methane production (g/d) between SF and TMR but the methane conversion rate (methane energy/GE intake) of TMR was significantly higher (p=0.05) than that of SF. The mean methane emission factor (kg/head/year) and conversion rate of the two treatments were 21.4 and 0.05, respectively. There was a strong relationship between metabolic body weight and enteric methane production (p<0.001). At the present time, further studies may be necessary in order to establish the effects of TMR and SF on enteric methane production.

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate growth performance in dairy goats (Saanen) fed total mixed ration (TMR) of different nutrition levels. Twenty four growing female goats of 8 months of age were randomly assigned to one of four TMRs; low energy-low crude protein (CP) TMR (control), high energy-low CP TMR (T1), low energy-high CP TMR (T3) and high energy-high CP TMR (T4). The content of total digestible nutrients (TDN) and CP in the control diet were 64% and 12%. The TDN content of the high energy TMR was 72% and the CP content of the high CP TMR was 14%. Feed intakes were 1,194g, 1,060g and 1,124g for T1, T2 and T3, respectively, being higher than control (1,039g). Average daily gain was also numerically higher for T1 (170.2g), T2 (114.5g) and T3 (154.9g) than for control (109.0g). The difference of average daily gain between T1 and control was statistically significant (P＜0.05). Although there were no significant differences in feed intake (% of body weight) between treatments, feed conversion ratios showed different responses; T1 (7.01) and T3 (7.26) being higher than T2 (9.26) and control (9.53). The increases of heart girth were 11.8㎝, 10.0㎝ and 11.4㎝ for T1, T2 and T3, respectively, being higher than control (8.1㎝).