Two experiments were conducted to evaluate whether fermentation end products in silage affect intake and digestion in beef cattle. Six rumen-cannulated Nellore steers were randomly assigned to a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square design with 14-d periods. Each period consisted of 9 d for adaptation and 5 d for sample collection. Steers were housed in a tie-stall barn and individually fed once daily ...

The Swedish dairy cow has almost doubled its annual milk yield over a few decades. This has simultaneously led to an increase in the dietary proportion of concentrate in order to meet the increased nutritional requirement of dairy cows. The proportion of forage is often below 50% of dry matter (DM) intake in conventional dairy production on an annual basis. However, the regulations for organic ...

A study was conducted to evaluate feed intake, ADG, carcass quality, eating behavior, and blood metabolites in feedlot beef steers fed diets that varied in proportion of wheat dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) replacing barley grain or barley silage. Two hundred crossbred steers (BW = 489 ± 30 kg) were blocked by BW and randomly allotted to 20 pens (5 pens per treatment). Steers were...

Survival of the green fluorescent protein-transformed human pathogens Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium was studied in a laboratory-simulated lettuce production chain. Dairy cows were fed three different roughage types: high-digestible grass silage plus maize silage (6:4), low-digestible grass silage, and straw. Each was adjusted with supplemental concentrates...

The effects of nature of nitrogen supplementation on silage DM intake (SDMI), total DM intake (TDMI), rumen parameters and ruminal degradation of DM of silage and wheat straw were studied using four adult Noire de Thibar rams. Silage was made from predominantly oats harvested at milk stage and ensiled without preservative. The silage was offered ad libitum as the sole diet (OS) or supplemented ...

In the production of fermented feed, each crop can be contaminated with a variety of microorganisms that may produce natural pollutants. Biogenic amines, mycotoxins, and undesirable organic acids can decrease health feed safety. The aim of this study was to compare the counts of microorganisms, levels of biogenic amines, and the mycotoxins in forage legumes, and also to compare the occurrence o...

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) have been studied in a variety of scenarios over recent years, but work has almost exclusively been done using air as the transmission media. In this article some of the challenges of deploying a WSN in a heterogeneous biomass, in this case silage, is handled. The dielectric constant of silage is measured using an open-ended coaxial probe. Results were successfull...

To have all-year-round available feedstock, whole-crop maize is harvested premature, when it still contains enough moisture for the anaerobic ensiling process. Silage preparation is a well-known procedure for preserving plant material. At first, this method was applied to obtain high-quality animal feed. However, it was found that such ensiled crops are very suitable for bioenergy production. M...

Oxygen (O₂) concentration inside the substrate is an important measurement for silage-research and-practical management. In the laboratory gas chromatography is commonly employed for O₂ measurement. Among sensor-based techniques, accurate and reliable in situ measurement is rare because of high levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) generated by the introduction of O₂ in the silage. The presented study...