Understanding forage quality and the factors that affect its constituents will help improve livestock production by making decisions that optimize forage nutritive value and intake. This investigation was conducted in Zagros semi-arid rangeland center, Iran to determine forage quality of several grass and legume species. Samples were collected at early bloom, from 5 m long and 0.10 m wide strip...

An in situ study (Exp. 1) using 4 ruminally cannulated steers (343 ± 11 kg of BW) in a completely randomized design was used to compare ruminal degradation characteristics of low-quality cool-season (C3; Kentucky bluegrass straw; Poa pratensis; 6.3% CP; DM basis) and warm-season (C4; tallgrass prairie; 5.7% CP; DM basis) forage. Four ruminally cannulated steers (252 ± 8 kg of BW; Exp. 2) and 4 ...

In New Zealand, agriculture is predominantly based on pastoral grazing systems and animal excreta deposited on soil during grazing have been identified as a major source of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. Forage brassicas (Brassica spp.) have been increasingly used to improve lamb performance. Compared with conventional forage perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), a common forage in New Zealan...

Plants are good environmental sensors of the soil conditions in which they are growing. They also respond directly to the state of air. The tops of plants are collectors of air pollutants, and their chemical composition may be a good indicator for contaminated-areas when it is assessed against background values obtained for unpolluted vegetation. Both, aquatic and terrestrial plants are known t...

Studies on vegetation changes of rangelands under grazed and non-grazedconditions are of great importance in the range management planning programs. To determinethe change process of vegetation, this study was performed in Inche Shorezar site of Golestanprovince for nine years (1997-2005). The vegetation parameters were measured every year inseveral fixed plots inside and adjacent of exclosures...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the sulfur content of water and forage samples from a geographically diverse sample of beef cow-calf operations in the United States and to estimate frequency and distribution of premises where forage and water resources could result in consumption of hazardous amounts of sulfur by cattle. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SAMPLE POPULATION 709 forage samples from 678 beef ...

Inter-sexual segregation between habitats or between sites within a habitat is very widespread in sexually dimorphic ungulates. As an explanation, it has been suggested that males, because of their larger forage requirements, are driven from preferred, high quality forage habitats into marginal habitats of lower forage quality but higher forage biomass by female competition (`indirect competiti...

Cattle 's grazing of the locoweed Wahweap milkvetch (Astragalus lentiginosus var. wabweapensis) was evaluated on desert and foothill winter range during the winter of 1986 to 1987. Dry, dead stalks of Wahweap milkvetch that had grown in 1985 and 1986 made up 15% of cattle diets overall, and 24% of diets when cattle grazed gravelly benches where it was abundant. Nutrit ional quality of Wahweap m...

The behavioral strategies developed by predators to capture and kill their prey are fascinating, notably for predators that forage for prey at, or beyond, the boundaries of their ecosystem. We report here the occurrence of a beaching behavior used by an alien and large-bodied freshwater predatory fish (Silurus glanis) to capture birds on land (i.e. pigeons, Columbia livia). Among a total of 45 ...