Warm-season grasses, also called C4, are the predominant forages for ruminant production in Florida. The C4 grasses grow well under high temperatures and generally cultivated between 25 N and 25 S of the equator. The C4 grasses are more efficient in fixing carbon dioxide than other grasses; however, they have a specialized thick-walled parenchyma bundle sheath around each vascular bundle, and m...

Forages are the foundation for building diets for beef and dairy cattle, horses, sheep and goats. The quality of these forages directly impacts forage intake, animal performance, and, ultimately, the profitability to their owners. As the quality of forages decline, consumption of that forage decreases and the amount of grain or byproducts which must be fed increases. The cost for a unit of perf...

Oklahoma is blessed with an abundance of excellent forage resources. Many Oklahoma producers enjoy the benefits of operating livestock production systems on both rangeland and introduced-forage pastures. However, some producers may not be aware of the need for different management strategies for the two ecosystems. Improper management generally results in decreased profitability of the livestoc...

Abstract The rumen microbial ecosystem provides ruminant animals a selective advantage, the ability to utilize forages, which allows flourish around world in wide variety of environments. population convert sunlight captured forages high quality meat, milk, and fiber has been recognized for many years. However, composition degradative activity remained “black box” with only most active (and ame...

The recent research was performed to investigate the toxicity of As and Cd in suburban area Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan. Water, soil forage samples were collected for this purpose summer winter season analysis done via wet digestion determine concentration selected heavy metals. mean water found above permissible maximum limit. Mean forages lower than allowed limit whereas which higher PML forag...

Horses have evolved over millions of years as grazers, with specialized digestive tracts adapted to digest and utilize diets containing high levels of plant fiber. They are capable of processing large quantities of forage to meet their nutrient demands. In an attempt to maximize growth or productivity, horses are often fed diets that also contain high levels of grains and supplements. Unfortuna...

Stable isotopes are an important tool to assess livestock diet in binary mixtures of C3-C4 forages. However, the use stable trace using tropical arboreal legumes has b...

INTRODUCTION Alfalfa is the primary forage fed to lactating dairy cows; however, there is renewed interest in utilizing grass forages in lactating dairy cow diets particularly because of farm nutrient management issues. Yield and perceived quality is generally lower for grass species compared to legumes while other agronomic factors such as longer stand life, requirement for nitrogen fertilizer...

Profitable livestock production from forages largely depends on efficiency of converting forages into products. Efficient grazing management systems require an understanding of the roles of system components. However, experimentation should be conducted with regard to the system as a whole rather than on the systems components in isolation. This may necessitate development of computer models. T...