With Americans becoming increasingly health conscious, more individuals are turning towards the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. These fatty acids are commonly found in fish oil but now, thanks to research at the University of Wyoming, can also be found in beef.
Dr. Dan Rule and his research team in the department of Animal Science are currently investigating effective ways to increase the omega-3 fatty acid content in beef fed a calcium complex containing fish oil.
In the first run of this experiment, cattle were fed calcium complexes containing fish oil as a dry daily supplement. When the meat of these animals was analyzed, there was a significant increase in the omega-3 fatty acid content — nearly six times more than cattle not fed the concentrate.
It was also discovered that grass-fed cattle were responsive to the fish oil-calcium salt but grain fed cattle were not. The greater response was attributed to the forage in the rumen, the first division in the stomach of a cow, creating a more stable environment, allowing the calcium complex to be broken down later in the small intestine instead of in the rumen, letting the cattle benefit more from the fish oil.
Although this practice was successful and the meat did not have a fishy taste, it was deemed too labor intensive to be practical in a ranching operation.
In order to make the process user-friendly, the calcium complex is now being fed as a lick. The lick tubs of the concentrate weigh in at 250 pounds and contain dry molasses mixed with 30 percent by weight calcium complex.
One tub can feed up to 20 animals and is less labor intensive for the rancher. The cattle also prefer the lick because the presence of the molasses disguises the taste and smell of the fish oil and cows consume this mixture more readily.
“It’s like a Sugar Daddy candy to the cattle. They love it,” Rule said on the increase palatability of the fish oil.
These animals will consume roughly half a pound of the concentrate per animal per day until mid-January when the livestock will be marketed and the meat analyzed.
Rule and his team are optimistic about the outcomes and hope to see an even greater concentration in the omega-3 fatty acids in the meat without the taste of fish.
