Grain-fed Cattle Research Articles

Consumer Acceptance of Beef Produced Under Alternative Feeding Systems

Much of the beef produced and sold in the United States before World War II was from grass- or limited grain-fed cattle. However, development of the modern large-scale cattle feeding industry in the 1950s and 1960s greatly increased supplies of grain-fed beef and, by the early 1970s, many American consumers found only USDA Choice beef from heavy, grain-fed cattle in supermarkets. Consumers soon became conditioned to the flavor, juiciness, and tenderness of high quality, well-marbled beef. Proponents of forage or limited grain finishing systems found little support at any marketing level.

Rumen bacterial endotoxins and their possible role in the sudden-death syndrome (1979)

We have found that rumen bacteria contain endotoxins that are released into rumen fluid. Also rumen fluid from grain-fed cattle contains considerably more free endotoxin than rumen fluid from hay-fed cattle. Injecting cattle with rumen bacterial endotoxins may be involved with such diseases associated with high-grain feeding as the sudden death syndrome.

Endotoxic activity of cell-free rumen fluid from cattle fed hay or grain.

The cell-free rumen fluid from cattle fed hay or grain exhibited the following biological characteristics which strongly suggest the presence of endotoxin or a toxic principle similar to endotoxin of gram-negative bacteria: proved lethal to mice when injected with actinomycin D; proved extremely lethal to chick embryo; induced biphasic pyogenic response in rabbits; enhanced susceptibility to bacterial infection in mice; evoked positive epinephrine skin reaction in rabbits and phenol-water or aqueous ether proved lethal to mice and chick embryos. A quantitative difference in concentrations of endotoxin was observed on LD50 in mice and chick embryos and response to the epinephrine skin test in rabbits. Cell-free rumen fluid of grain-fed cattle contained at least twice as much endotoxin as that of hay-fed cattle. Endotoxin in cell-free rumen fluid and in higher concentration in cattle fed grain than in those fed hay support the hypothesis that rumen bacterial endotoxins may participate in the pathogenesis of diseases associated with high grain feeding such as lactic acidosis and the sudden-death syndrome.