New Zealand dairy farmers are increasingly using supplementary feeds in an attempt to overcome the quantitative and nutritional limitations of pasture. The use of rolled maize grain and pasture silage supplements was evaluated on a farmlet basis for two seasons. Supplementary feeding resulted in 88 and 82 g milksolids (MS)/kg dry matter (DM) at stocking rates of 3.24 and 4.48 Friesian cows/ha r...

Some feedstuffs containing significant levels of fiber may be a good source of bioactive compounds that may contribute to improving broiler meat quality. However, high fiber level can have a negative impact on broiler performance. A study was undertaken to investigate the impact of incorporating citrus pulp (5 or 10%) or dehydrated pasture (5 or 10%) on the performance, carcass yield, and chara...

323 During pasture grazing, freshly harvested herbage (litterfall) is dropped onto soils from the mouths of dairy cattle, potentially inducing nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. Although the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommends accounting for N2O emissions from arable crop residues in national inventories, emissions from the litterfall of grazed pasture systems are not recogn...

Outdoor access is an important part of organic and free-range poultry production, yet limited information exists on the effect of various housing and production systems on growth performance and colonization of food-borne pathogens. Therefore, the primary purpose of the current study was to evaluate the influence of different housing systems, particularly fixed versus small, portable houses, wi...

There has been a decrease in grazing mobility in the Mongolian grasslands over the past decades. Sedentary grazing with substantial external inputs has increased the cost of livestock production. As a result, the livelihoods of herders have become more vulnerable to climate variability and change. Sedentary grazing is the formal institutional arrangement in Inner Mongolia, China. However, this ...

The effects of abrupt dietary transition on the faecal microbiota of forage-fed horses over a 3-week period were investigated. Yearling Thoroughbred fillies reared as a cohort were exclusively fed on either an ensiled conserved forage-grain diet ("Group A"; n = 6) or pasture ("Group B"; n = 6) for three weeks prior to the study. After the Day 0 faecal samples were collected, horses of Group A w...

A 4-yr study was conducted to determine the effects of two grazing methods (GM) at two stocking rates (SR) on alfalfa pasture plant productivity and animal performance and to ascertain the effect of grazing systems on subsequent performance of steers fed a high-concentrate diet. Eight pasture plots (.76 ha) were seeded in 1988 with alfalfa (Medicago sativa L. var. WL225) and divided into two bl...

This study investigated glucocorticoid (GC) responses to season and changes in enclosure size and human proximity in the Persian onager (Equus hemionus onager). Enzyme immunoassays were validated to measure GC metabolites in urine and feces (fGCM). Fecal samples were collected from 10 female onagers while in a large pasture, after transport to smaller yards (in greater proximity to people), and...

BACKGROUND Although the epidemiology of scrapie has been broadly understood for many years, attempts to introduce voluntary or compulsory controls to eradicate the disease have frequently failed. Lack of precision in defining the risk factors on farm has been one of the challenges to designing control strategies. This study attempted to define which parts of the annual flock management cycle re...

The spatial distribution of feral ferret (Mustela furo) activity and denning were studied using ink-print tracking tunnels and radio-tracking within pastoral farmland containing a mosaic of grazed (developed and semideveloped) and ungrazed pasture, scrub, tree plantation and scrubby fence lines at Palmerston, East Otago, South Island, New Zealand. Ferrets concentrated their activity in grazed a...