Napiergrass can produce large amounts of biomass and its nutritive value has a significant effect on its effectiveness for animal production. However, temperature and drought stress limit its productivity. Drought-tolerant pearl millet · napiergrass hybrid (PMN) varieties were developed and produce high biomass yields. The nutritional content and digestibility of PMN is not well known, which li...

the nutritive value of grass pea (lathyrus sativus l.) hay was evaluated based on its chemical composition, gas production, fractioning of protein in cncps and afrc systems, metabolizable energy (me), rumen degradability through in situ technique and in vitro digestibility through tilley and terry method. the crude protein (cp), neutral detergent fiber (ndf) and acid detergent fiber (adf) value...

Plant breeders developing cultivars to minimize the hazards of grass tetany are concentrating largely on increasing herbage Mg concentrations in cool-season (C3) grasses. Significant genetic variation has been found for Mg, Ca and K concentrations within C3 grass species studied to date. For most C3 forage grass species, heritability estimates are highest for Mg, slightly lower for Ca and lowes...

On farms involved in botulism outbreaks, cycles of Clostridium botulinum have occurred. The cycles were initiated by feeding brewers' grains contaminated with proteolytic C. botulinum type B to the cows. Spreading of manure containing feces of these cows increased the contamination of the pastures. In grass silages prepared with wilted grass from these pastures the number of C. botulinum type B...

The rice stink bug, Oebalus pugnax (Fabricius) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae: Carpocorini), though graminaceous, discriminates among its numerous host grass species. This could represent a feeding preference, it could be related to host suitability for growth and development. To clarify the role of host grass discrimination, two laboratory studies were conducted: (1) free-choice tests to evaluate pr...

The present study was aimed at assessing the ingestive behavior of ¾ Zebu × Holstein heifers confined to different levels of substitution of sorghum silage by marandu grass silage. Twenty heifers were used with initial average weight of 346.25 kg, divided into completely randomized experimental design with 5 repetitions and the following treatments: treatment 1) roughage fraction of the diet co...

1. We demonstrate the potential of extracting high-resolution dietary information from stable carbon isotopes ( δ 13 C) in horse tail-hair, in response to short-term changes in diet in controlled feeding experiments. 2. Tail hairs were sampled from six horses that had been equilibrated to C3 forage and were then subjected to a series of short-term diet switches to the C4 Coastal Bermuda Grass (...

Preference value means livestock preference to eat some plants relative to other plants or species. Accordingly, by studying the preference values, the range managers could determine the rangelands grazing capacity to achieve the optimum performance of livestock and to guarantee the stability of rangeland ecosystem. The objective of this study was to determine the preference value of perennial ...

Predicted increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations often reduce nutritional quality for herbivores by increasing the C:N ratio of plant tissue. This frequently triggers compensatory feeding by aboveground herbivores, whereby they consume more shoot material in an attempt to meet their nutritional needs. Little, however, is known about how root herbivores respond to such chan...