Vitamin nutrition in beef cattle is often taken for granted, with limited attention paid to how well beef cattle is being supplemented with essential vitamins. B vitamin nutrition plays a vital role in carbohydrate, protein, and fat metabolism of beef cattle. Ensuring maximal digestion of all nutrients is paramount for optimise beef cattle performance. Historically it has been thought that rumen synthesis of B Vitamins is enough to support vitamin B requirements of beef cattle. Vitamin B supplementation of beef cattle has however yielded beneficial effects, suggesting supplementation is warranted^1,2.

During the ASAS congress, Erica Ferri Oliveira presented some studies carried out at the Oregon State University about effects of supplementing beef cattle with a rumen protected vitamin B supplement.

In an earlier study³, beef cows in a cow calf operation were fed a rumen protected vitamin B supplement for beef cattle from 45 days before calving until 15 days after calving. There was no effect on body weight of these cows, but calves born from cows that received vitamin B supplementation tended to be heavier at turnout at 90 days of age. Based on these results, it was suggested that when vitamin B is fed to beef calves when ruminal flora is still developing, a positive impact on growth can be expected.

It is known that stress can have detrimental effects on the immune system of beef cattle. Practices such as castration, weaning, transportation and dietary changes can cause significant stress resulting in reduced performance and an increase of morbidity and death rates in receiving feedlot cattle. Several studies in beef cattle have demonstrated that abrupt weaning and maternal separation can impact the behavior of animals and can also change acute phase protein profiles. Stress levels of beef cattle can be reduced with a preconditioning program, executed before sale, or before beef calves are sent to a feedlot. Components of a preconditioning program for beef cattle can include deworming, vaccination, trace mineral management and vitamin supplementation. All these interventions have been studied during this preconditioning period to evaluate the impact on performance of beef calves.

Vitamin B supplements for beef cattle contain water soluble molecules that play a role crucial role in various metabolic processes of beef cattle such as energy, carbohydrate, lipids and amino acid metabolism. Vitamin deficiencies in beef cattle have been associated with poor functioning of the immune system.

During a second study, beef cattle were supplemented with a rumen protected vitamin B complex during their preconditioning program. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of supplementation of vitamin B complex on post weaning performance of beef calves.

The study was conducting during fall of 2023 at the Oregon State University in the Agricultural Research Centre in Burns, Oregon. At weaning, on day zero, 63 Angus-Hereford cross bred calves were stratified by body weight and randomly assigned to one of three treatments. The control group didn't receive any vitamin B supplementation, treatment group 1 received 1 gram of vitamin B supplementation, group 2 received 2 grams of vitamin B supplementation. Groups 1 and 2 were supplemented with Selko Vivalto, a vitamin B supplement for beef cattle containing pantothenic acid B5, pyridoxine B6, folic acid B9 biotin B7 and cobalamin B12. Supplementation was offered from day zero until the end of the preconditioning phase which was day 42.

The vitamin B complex was offered to calves assigned to treatment, mixed with 1.3 kg of dry distillery grain. Calves had free access to chopped alfalfa grass, hay mix and whole corn.

Pen dry matter intake of beef calves was recorded daily and blood samples and body weight were recorded on days 0,1, 3, 7, 14, 21 and 42. Blood samples were analyzed for plasma ceruloplasmin and haptoglobin.

On average, calves in the trial had an average daily gain of 700 grams per day. Bodyweight and average daily gain of beef calves was not different between the 3 groups (see table 1).

Plasma ceruloplasmin started to increase on day 1 with a peak on day 7, but at the end of the period there was no difference between treatments. Plasma haptoglobin started to increase on day 1, peaked on day 3 after which it decreased on day 7.

Supplementation of vitamin B complex to beef calves post weaning did not seem to affect calf grow or to ameliorate acute phase response, regardless of the level of supplementation. Similar results have been found in other trials in beef calves, but in contrast, there was another study in beef calves reported⁴, in which supplementation of 1 gram of a vitamin B complex to beef steers in a feedlot resulted in a greater average daily gain and a better feed conversion during the first 28 days of the study.