A nutritional evaluation of an Irish dairy herd indicated gross overfeeding of late lactation cows, over-conditioning of cows at parturition and a high rate of body condition loss in early lactation. Metabolisable-energy based nutritional modelling software was used to guide recommended dietary changes to prevent excessive condition gain in late lactation. Immediately following the implementati...

It has been suggested that maximum sustained metabolic rate (SusMR) in mammals as reached, for instance, during lactation, is due to a limited capacity for heat dissipation. Here, we experimentally tested whether heat dissipation limitation (HDL) also constrains energy turnover in lactating European hares. Experimentally, we made use of the fact that hares nurse their young only once per day, w...

A nutritional evaluation of an Irish dairy herd indicated gross overfeeding of late lactation cows, over-conditioning of cows at parturition and a high rate of body condition loss in early lactation. Metabolisable-energy based nutritional modelling software was used to guide recommended dietary changes to prevent excessive condition gain in late lactation. Immediately following the implementati...

INTRODUCTION A six-year research program, “Premium Grains for Livestock”, funded by the Grains R&D Corporation, several animal R&D Corporations and Ridley Agriproducts is focussed on improving the quality of cereal grains for livestock. Cereal grains provide the major source of energy for animals raised in intensive production systems. However, the energy available from cereal grains can vary w...

The objective of this experiment was to determine the digestible energy (DE) and metabolisable energy (ME) in 22 sources of soybean meal (SBM) produced from soybeans from different countries and subsequently to establish equations for predicting the DE and ME in SBM based on their chemical composition. The 22 sources of SBM were all processed in Chinese crushing plants, but the soybeans used or...

Thirty lactating Holstein Friesian cows were used in a three treatment randomised block design experiment to investigate the influence of degree of grass wilting prior to ensiling on animal performance and energy utilisation. The three forage treatments were produced from perennial ryegrass swards either ensiled directly or mown, conditioned, spread and tedded to ensure rapid wilting, and ensil...

COVID-19 has highlighted the need for robust cattle supply chains using local feed resources. Higher Income Over Food Costs (IOFC) are usually achieved when live weight gains high and cost of ingredients low. There is a to formulate rations with metabolisable energy (ME) crude protein (CP) achieve gain. Rations can be formulated locally by farmer co-operatives, entrepreneurs commercial enterpri...