DOI: 10.5061/dryad.zw3r228h5
title: Data from: Short Communication: Feeding behaviors are not correlated with area-under-the-curve for reticulorumen pH below 5.8 and 5.6 in finishing steers

description: Persistent low rumen pH (&lt;5.8-5.6) is the most researched sign of
 Subacute Ruminal Acidosis (SARA), a disorder in cattle caused by
 consumption of a high-concentrate diet. Animals may ruminate less and eat
 forages to slow acid accumulation, but there are no other easily
 detectable signs of SARA. The objective was to evaluate whether feeding
 behavior is correlated to daily time spent below reticulorumen pH 5.8 and
 5.6. We predicted that the severity of daily fluctuation in pH below 5.8
 would be negatively correlated to daily intake, the number of visits to
 the feed bin, and time spent eating, as decreases in these variables are
 indicative of sickness behavior. These aspects of feeding behavior are
 moderately, positively correlated to each other (r≥0.3), thus do not
 represent 3 independent tests of our hypothesis, but rather, create an
 overall picture of feeding behavior. Eighteen steers were fed a
 high-concentrate finishing ration ad-libitum, with delivery twice daily
 into automated feed bins that measured feeding behavior. Wireless boluses
 measured reticulorumen pH in 10-min intervals continuously for 11.5±0.9 d
 (mean±SD). The mean daily pH was 6.1±0.2, the mean daily maximum pH was
 6.7±0.1, and the mean daily minimum pH was 5.5±0.2 (mean±SD). The
 area-under-the-curve (AUC) for pH below 5.8 and 5.6 for each 24-h day was
 calculated for each animal (AUC: 75.2±15.5 and 30.3±7.4 pH x min/24 h,
 respectively, mean±SE). Repeated-measures correlation analyses
 investigated the relationship between AUC and each of the behavioral
 variables. There was no correlation between time spent eating (74.0±3.0
 min/24 h, mean±SE) or visits to the feed (27.0±2.4 no./24 h) and AUC
 (r³-0.072; p³0.34). A weak negative correlation existed between the DMI
 (10.0±0.2 kg/24 h) and AUC &lt; pH 5.6 (r=-0.164; p=0.03), but not for
 AUC &lt; pH 5.8 (r=-0.122, p=0.10). The same analyses were conducted
 for daily AUC and the feeding behaviors on the following day to capture a
 delayed behavioral response, but no associations were detected (p³0.12).
 The feeding behaviors measured alone were not adequate to describe the
 severity of reticulorumen pH depression in finishing cattle. Individual
 variation in tolerance to low pH, adequate time to adapt to the finishing
 ration, and/or selection pressures for weight gain may have contributed to
 the lack of a defined sickness response to SARA.
description: # Data from: Short Communication: Feeding behaviors are not correlated
 with area-under-the-curve for reticulorumen pH below 5.8 and 5.6 in
 finishing steers The corresponding paper references the supplemental
 materials in this document. The means and standard errors are reported in
 the RMarkdown for all data. Missing data has been denoted in the raw data
 files with “NA”. ## Description of the data and file structure This
 section includes the data used for this paper. Eighteen finishing steers,
 fed ad-libitum, with delivery twice daily into automated feed bins that
 measured feeding behavior. Wireless boluses were administered that
 measured reticulorumen pH in 10-min intervals. Each animal was monitored
 continuously for 11.5 (0.9) d (mean (SD)). Based on the distribution of
 intake, a threshold of 5 kg DM was created and 1 animal (Steer 12) was
 removed from analyses for not consuming at least 5 kg DM daily. * **Data
 240807.xlsx:** Descriptive columns include Animal ID (Animal) and date of
 data collection (Date). Dry matter intake (DMI_std), time spent eating in
 minutes (Time_eating), number of visits to the feed bin (Visit_count), and
 time spent below a reticulorumen pH threshold of 5.8 (Time_5.8) and 5.6
 (Time_5.6) were summed by 24-h period. The number of minutes per day spent
 below a reticulorumen pH of 5.8 were recorded as sum of 10-minute periods
 in the “Time_5.8” column. The “AUC_5.8” is the Area-Under-the-Curve for
 reticulorumen pH 5.8. The “AUC_5.8_DMIstd” is the “AUC_5.8” value
 standardized by DMI. The same calculations were completed for pH 5.6 in
 the columns “Time_5.6”, “AUC_5.6”, and “AUC_5.6_DMIstd”. Mean, maximum,
 and minimum reticulorumen pH were calculated on a daily basis, and
 recorded in the “Mean_pH”, “Max_pH”, and “Min_pH” columns, respectively.
 Missing data has been denoted in the data files with "NA". ##
 RMarkdown Code Annotated versions of the Rmarkdown files in .rmd and .pdf
 can be downloaded in and run in R, or viewed in the pdf format. *
 *Descriptive Statistics, Models, and Figures 250102 (pdf and rmd)* ##
 Software All analyses were conducted in R Studio and all packages and
 versions are included in the RMarkdown files listed above.