Feed Smarter | Beef Spots
Feed Smarter Spots is a series of bite-sized videos where leading industry experts answer practical questions about beef cattle health, nutrition, and performance. In under a minute, each episode delivers science-backed insights you can apply to help build more resilient, productive herds.
Bovacillus™ is your reliable, feed-stable Bacillus probiotic that supports rumen and intestinal health, delivering consistent results across (virtually) all feed types. Feed smarter for consistent and sustainable performance.
Beef biosolutions – why now?
Increasingly, beef cattle nutrition needs to deliver more under tighter conditions. Rations change frequently, raw material quality varies, and margins leave little room for inconsistency. And sustainability expectations go beyond emissions to include animal health and efficiency. This is where feeding smarter with biosolutions makes the difference.
Immunity in beef cattle
This section of the Feed Smarter Spots is focused on the topic of immunity in beef cattle with Prof. Reinaldo Cooke PhD, Burkhart Endowed Professor for Beef Cattle Research, Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University.
Great research starts by understanding the challenges producers face.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, Prof. Cook shares how his work in beef cattle nutrition, immunology, reproduction, and welfare is guided by one simple principle: solving the problems that matter most to producers.
Discover how science and practical experience come together to develop solutions that support healthier, more productive herds.
What are the early signs of immune incompetence?
One of the first changes is often a decrease in feed intake.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, Prof. Reinaldo Cooke explains why appetite can be an early indicator of declining resilience—and why looking beyond herd averages matters.
Rather than focusing only on total pen intake, observe individual animals at the feed bunk. Cattle that are slower to approach feed or show less interest in eating may be signaling that something is changing before clinical signs become visible.
Early observation can support earlier intervention and help maintain herd health and performance.
What is one key insight you want every beef cattle producer to know?
According to Prof. Reinaldo Cooke, rushing cattle through stressful events can have lasting consequences for immunity, welfare, and performance.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, he explains why planning ahead is one of the most effective ways to support resilience. By spreading out unavoidable stressors and implementing nutritional strategies—such as probiotics—before animals face a challenge, producers can help cattle better cope with stress.
The timing of your management decisions can make all the difference.
What to pay attention most regardless the specific production challenge faced?
Different stressors. One common outcome: lost performance.
Whether it's heat stress, transportation, or social stress, cattle respond through the same biological pathway: cortisol production.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, Prof. Reinaldo Cooke explains how cortisol helps animals cope with stress—but at a cost. Breaking down body tissues to fuel the stress response requires energy, increases inflammation, reduces feed intake, and ultimately impacts performance.
Understanding how stress affects cattle is the first step toward developing management and nutritional strategies that help protect resilience and productivity.
What is commonly underestimated when it comes to immunity in beef cattle?
The biggest performance losses aren't always the ones you can see.
In feedlot cattle, the effects of stress and immune challenges often go unnoticed until the animals reach the end of the production cycle. By then, the opportunity to recover lost performance has already passed.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, Professor Reinaldo Cooke explains why monitoring cattle throughout the feeding period—not just at arrival and harvest—is essential for improving feedlot efficiency. He also discusses the need for practical, low-stress technologies that can help identify performance losses earlier.
What makes one animal more resilient to challenges than another?
Even within the same breed, age, and management group, some cattle are naturally more resilient than others.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, Prof. Reinaldo Cooke explains why resilience varies between animals and explores the role that genetics may play in helping cattle better cope with stress and disease.
As our understanding of resilience grows, it could open new opportunities to improve herd health and productivity through both genetics and management.
What influences the long-term outcomes when you think of receiving feedlot cattle?
The first weeks in the feedlot can shape an animal's entire performance.
For newly received cattle, adapting to a new environment, diet, and social group creates significant stress. How those challenges are managed can have a lasting impact on health, welfare, and productivity.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, Prof. Reinaldo Cooke explains why stress management should be a priority from day one. He also discusses how proactive strategies—including nutritional interventions such as prebiotics and probiotics—can help cattle better cope with these early challenges.
How central is gut health when it comes to immune response?
A healthy gut does more than support digestion—it helps build resilience.
The gut is the body's largest immune organ, playing a critical role in pathogen recognition, antibody production, and immune cell activity. That's why gut health is closely linked to an animal's overall health and performance.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, Prof. Reinaldo Cooke explains why maintaining a healthy gut is essential for resilient cattle and how science-backed nutritional strategies, including probiotics, can help create a healthier gut environment to support immunity.
What's one of the most overlooked drivers of immune competence in feedlot cattle?
Stress.
Stress doesn't just affect animal welfare—it directly impacts immune competence. When stressors such as transportation, processing, and handling accumulate, cattle are less able to respond to health and nutritional interventions.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, Prof. Reinaldo Cooke explains why managing stress is the foundation for success. Even the best vaccination programs, feed additives, and nutritional strategies can only deliver their full value when cattle are in the right condition to respond.
Which management decisions could be compromising beef cattle resilience?
According to Prof. Reinaldo Cooke, planning ahead is one of the most effective ways to support immunity, welfare, and performance.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, he explains why clustering stressors—such as transportation, processing, and adapting to a new environment—can reduce cattle resilience. He also highlights the importance of implementing nutritional strategies, including probiotics, before stressful events occur, so cattle are better prepared to respond.
When it comes to supporting resilience, timing matters just as much as the intervention itself.
How Bacillus probiotic can help?
Explore more about Bovacillus™ probiotic with Dr. Oscar Queiroz PhD, Sr. Global Portfolio Manager, Ruminants at Novonesis and Dr. Bruno Ieda Cappellozza PhD, Global Technical Manager, Ruminants at Novonesis.
What makes Bacillus probiotics different from Yeast probiotics?
Not all probiotics are designed to withstand the challenges of feed production.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, Dr. Oscar Queiroz, Senior Global Portfolio Manager at Novonesis, explains how Bacillus probiotics form resilient spores — the toughest form of bacteria found in nature. This allows them to remain viable through a wide range of feed manufacturing processes and feeding applications, helping ensure the probiotic reaches the animal alive.
For producers, that means greater confidence that the probiotic is ready to deliver its benefits, regardless of the feeding system.
What is Bovacillus™ probiotic?
Supporting animal health is essential — but so is helping cattle perform at their best.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, Dr. Oscar Queiroz explains how Bovacillus™ probiotic was developed to support both health and performance in beef and dairy cattle. As a thermostable Bacillus probiotic, it can be incorporated into virtually any feeding system — from TMR and pellets to premixes, milk replacers, blocks, tubs, and liquid applications.
The result is a solution that's easy to use and fits seamlessly into existing feeding programs, giving producers confidence that the probiotic reaches the animal without adding operational complexity.
Is Bovacillus™ probiotic heat-stable?
Thermostability is essential for a probiotic to remain viable from feed manufacturing to the animal.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, Dr. Oscar Queiroz shares how Bovacillus™ probiotic was evaluated for its thermostability. In trials conducted at the Danish Technological Institute, feed pellets were produced at 75°C, 85°C, and 95°C, and Bovacillus™ probiotic consistently achieved the target concentration of viable spores. The spores also remained viable after six months of storage.
These results provide confidence that Bovacillus™ probiotic can maintain its viability across demanding feed processing conditions.
Can Bovacillus™ probiotic be used alongside ionophores?
Yes. Compatibility matters when introducing any feed additive into an existing nutrition program.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, Dr. Oscar Queiroz explains how Bovacillus™ probiotic was evaluated for use alongside ionophores, including monensin. While a brief adaptation phase was observed, Bovacillus™ probiotic continued to grow and reach viable levels. In practice, cattle consume probiotics continuously throughout the day, allowing this natural cycle to repeat with every visit to the feed bunk.
The result? Bovacillus™ probiotic can be confidently incorporated into feeding programs that include ionophores.
Can Bovacillus™ probiotic support a balanced gut microbiota?
A balanced gut microbiota plays an important role in supporting animal health and performance.
In this Feed Smarter Spot, Dr. Oscar Queiroz shares research demonstrating how Bovacillus™ probiotic helped promote a more balanced gut microbiota in feedlot cattle. In a South African study, cattle fed Bovacillus™ probiotic over extended periods showed a greater prevalence of beneficial bacteria associated with improved fiber and carbohydrate utilization, the production of beneficial compounds such as CLA, and overall gut health.
These findings highlight how supporting the gut microbiota can contribute to healthier, more resilient cattle.
Keep learning. Keep feeding smarter.
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