By Joe Montgomery
MANHATTAN — A new study by Kansas State University finds that feeding cattle industrial hemp may have a beneficial effect on their welfare: a reduction in stress and increasing the times when they lie down.
"Cattle experience a variety of stress and inflammation," said Michael Kleinhenz, assistant professor of beef production medicine at the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine. "Our most recent data shows how cannabinoids via industrial hemp decreased the stress hormone cortisol as well as the inflammatory biomarker prostaglandin E2. This shows that hemp containing cannabidiolic acid, or CBDA, may decrease stress and inflammation in cattle. Thus, hemp may be a natural way to decrease stress and inflammation related to production practices such as transportation and weaning."
Kleinhenz has published the results of his study, "Short term feeding of industrial hemp with a high cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) content increases lying behavior and reduces biomarkers of stress and inflammation in Holstein steers," in Scientific Reports.
Another benefit observed when feeding cattle industrial hemp is that they lie down more, which can help them ruminate and produce saliva.
Kleinhenz, who is in the college's clinical sciences department, worked with a multidisciplinary team. Researchers on the project included graduate students Mikaela Weeder, Shawnee Montgomery, Miriam Martin and Andrew Curtis; and anatomy and physiology department faculty members Geraldine Magnin, Hans Coetzee, Jason Griffin and Zhoumeng Lin; K-State Research and Extension's John C. Pair Horticulture Center in Haysville; and the environmental and global health department at the University of Florida. Each brought expertise in pharmacology, toxicology and plant biology.