Rumen metagenomes from growing and finishing study

The metagenomic datasets are from an 84-day growing study utilizing 120 steers and a subsequent 125-day finishing study with 60 steers at the University of Nebraska Agriculture Research and Development Center, as described previously (Pesta 2015). From the original 120 animals in the growing study, 23 animals across different treatment groups were randomly selected for metagenomic sequencing. Sixty of the steers were utilized in a finishing study to evaluate the influence of dietary nitrate and sulfate on methane emissions and animal performance. From this study, 27 animals across different treatment groups were selected randomly for metagenomic sequencing.