Goats in pens eat about 20% more of a low quality feed than do sheep. This higher intake is just sufficient to match the higher maintenance energy requwment of the goats, so, in reality, they are not more suited to an existence on low quality feeds There is little difference between goats and sheep in the extent to which they digest and utilise feeds. It is clear that goats will eat more browse...

Morphological characters such as main stem length (cm), number of branches per plant, leaf length (cm), number of leaves per main stem, number of leaflets per leaf, diameter of main stem (mm), pods / main stem and seeds / pod as well as agricultural herbage yield (t ha), dry matter yield (t ha), seed yield (t ha), crude protein (%) were investigated in Trakya, during the 1999-2002. The maximum ...

The studies conducted in 2007–2008 were aimed to assess how the developmental stage of common oregano affected the quality and quantity of the herb yield. The field experiment was established with the use of random blocks in four repetitions. Oregano was grown from seeding produced in a greenhouse. Herbage harvest of one-year-old plants was conducted before flowering, in budding phase, at the b...

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of pregrazing pasture herbage mass (HM) on CH4 emissions, ruminal fermentation, and ADG of grazing beef heifers at 2 stages of the grazing season. Thirty Limousin cross heifers were allocated to 1 of 2 target pregrazing HM treatments [a low HM (LHM) or high HM (HHM) treatment] for 126 d in a randomized block design experiment. Pasture herb...

Melilotus is an important genus of legume plants and an herbage with excellent nitrogen fixation; it can tolerate extreme environmental conditions and possesses important medicinal value. However, there is limited genetic information about the genus; thus, we analysed four chloroplast loci (rbcL, matK, psbA-trnH and trnL-F) and one nuclear region (ITS) to determine the genetic diversity of 199 ...

Successful pasture-based milk production systems pivot on balancing dairy cows’ feed requirements with seasonal and annual fluctuations in pasture production. In order to maximise cow production from grazing dairy systems, it is necessary to reach an efficient utilization of grazed grass for feeding cows and the development of appropriate grazing management systems designed to maximize daily pa...

Leaf appearance rate and phyllochron are related variables which play a central role in forage production. Phyllochron is the time interval between the appearance of successive leaves and varies according to a number of environmental factors, among which temperature is the most important. The experiment was conducted in natural pasture with the aim of testing phyllochron variation under differe...

successful pasture-based milk production systems pivot on balancing dairy cows’ feed requirements with seasonal and annual fluctuations in pasture production. in order to maximise cow production from grazing dairy systems, it is necessary to reach an efficient utilization of grazed grass for feeding cows and the development of appropriate grazing management systems designed to maximize daily pa...

The alkane method of measuring herbage intake in ruminants was compared with actual intake determined by transponder-controlled feed gates (Calan gates). Kikuyu (Pennisetum clandestinum) intakes of yearling bulls (Holstein-Friesland and Hereford) were measured for a period of seven days. No significant effect of breed on intake was found. Herbage intake calculated from the alkane technique (mea...

There is little empirical evidence to indicate that dairy cow live weight affects the extent of soil damage at the hoof-soil interface during grazing on poorly drained permanent grassland. In the present study the impact of Holstein-Friesian (HF) dairy cows with a mean (±standard deviation) live weight of 570 (±61) kg were compared with Jersey × Holstein-Friesian (JX) with a mean live weight of...