Cattle are more motivated for a high-concentrate diet than Sudan grass hay, despite low reticulorumen pH

Sub-acute ruminal acidosis (SARA), a disorder characterized by chronic low ruminal pH, occurs in feedlot cattle fed high-concentrate diets. Forages slow digestion and reduce acid production. Thus, we aimed to assess how motivated finishing cattle are to access forage (Sudan grass hay, SG) via their willingness to interact with an electrified barrier. Reticulorumen pH was measured to contextualize the results with digestive health. Twenty-eight animals fed a high-concentrate ration ad-libitum had access to 4 L one of two treatments (n=14/treatment) fed once a day behind a barrier: 1) SG, or 2) an additional offering of the normal ration (TMR). To access a treatment, the steer voluntarily pushed his muzzle against an electrified barrier. The electrical current was increased exponentially every 24 h (0, 156, 312, 625, 1250, 2500, 5000 µA) until the animal ceased accessing it. Visits to the treatment were recorded continuously 24 h/d and reticulorumen pH was measured every 10 min. Rumen pH ..., Please see the methods described in the associated research publication. , Please see the information in the associated README file. , # Data from \"Cattle are more motivated for a high-concentrate diet than Sudan grass hay, despite low reticulorumen pH\"

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The corresponding paper references the supplemental materials in this document. The means, standard errors, and confidence intervals 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

### Tables and captions (see \"Supplemental Tables 230926.pdf\")

* *Supplemental Table S1*; Effect of interacting with an aversive electrified barrier to access 4 L of either SG or TMR on behaviours in finishing cattle fed a high-concentrate diet for current periods -3 to 0.

* *Supplemental Table S2*; Back-transformed means and SE for models analyzing the effect of interacting with an aversive electrified barrier to access 4 L of either SG or TMR on behaviours in finishing ...