Sponsor Content from Novonesis
Dr. Steve Lerner, senior scientific and business advisor with Novonesis, recently joined Sarah Muirhead, managing director of Feedstuffs, to discuss ways to improve digestive health in feedlot cattle, make every pound of gain count and potentially improve carbon intensity. Here are notable takeaways.
In practical terms, digestive health in feedlots is no longer simply about fewer sick cattle, shares Lerner. We now focus on supporting the normal biology of those bioreactors we call beef cattle in our care.
We target stability in the rumen, a beneficial balance of microorganisms and microbiota to enable the effective capture of nutrients. Done well, producers realize a reliable, consistent feed-to-gain performance and more resilient cattle under stressful conditions.
Using enzymes and probiotics to ensure proper digestion and utilization of nutrients should demonstrably improve variation, help create a more reliable fiber digestion rhythm and amplify results.
When it comes to effective probiotics, it is absolutely the strain of organism or combination of strains that is the most important.
Source: Feedstuffs, February 25, 2026. Link. Video [15:53]
I don’t think we’re too far away from actually having microbiome-informed formulations based on what’s going on in the microbiome of a population that lets us adjust formulations to take advantage of that.” – Steve Lerner, PhD
INSIGHTS: Novonesis views fiber fermentation as a living biological process; one that performs best when its microbial ecosystem is supported, not forced. In the feedlot, Bovamine Defend® Plus offers a unique combination of four probiotic strains that work synergistically to beef up cattle performance and bottom line <Link>.
