Plant cuticular n-alkanes have been successfully used as markers to estimate diet composition and intake of grazing herbivores. However, additional markers may be required under grazing conditions in botanically diverse vegetation. This study was conducted to describe the n-alkane profiles and the carbon isotope enrichment of n-alkanes of common plant species from the Mid Rift Valley rangelands...

Dry matter intake, nitrogen intake, nitrogen digestibility, rumen ammonia-N and plasma urea-N concentration were measured in young rusa deer fed 4 diets containing 90 to 205 g/kg DM crude protein. The level of crude protein associated with maximal voluntary food intake and dry matter digestibility for these animals was found to be about 160 g/kg DM. Plasma urea-N was positively related to rumen...

Grasslands in tropical environments are characterized by greater diversity than is found in temperate areas. In South Africa, greater diversity is found with the seasonally limited production which occurs on dystrophic soils under humid conditions in the sourveld, as opposed to the year round production that occurs on eutrophic soils under warm and drier conditions in the sweetveld. Most of the...

effect of dietary free l-lysine on growth, food intake, and muscle composition of beluga juveniles were investigated over 6 weeks. control diet lysine content was 2.1% of dry matter (4.4% of dietary protein). three experimental diets were prepared by adding lysine (0.5, 1 and 1.5%) to control diet to obtain diets containing 2.6, 3.1 and 3.6% of dry matter lysine (corresponding to 5.5, 6.6 and 7...

Four breed types with 12 cows/breed-type (Hereford x Angus, AHx; Charolais and Angus and Charolais x Hereford, Cx; Jersey x Angus, Jersey x Hereford, Jx and Simmental x Angus, Simmental x Hereford, Sx) were used to estimate nutrient requirements for zero daily weight change. Four nonpregnant, nonlactating cows of each breed type were assigned to one of three feeding levels [90 kcal metabolizabl...

Fifty fall-weaned heifers with initial weights of 209 kg (yr 1) and 222 kg (yr 2) were used to determine effects of lasalocid on weight gains, forage intake and ruminal fermentation of stocker cattle grazing winter wheat pasture. The heifers grazed a single wheat pasture for about 100 d each year, and were individually fed 1.06 kg of supplement (6 d/wk) pro-rated to supply 0, 100 or 200 mg lasa...

This review deals with the most relevant limits and developments of the modeling of intake of sheep and goats reared intensively and extensively. Because small ruminants are normally fed ad libitum, voluntary feed intake is crucial in feeding tactics and strategies aimed at optimal animal production. The effects of genetic, neuroendocrine, hormonal, feed and environmental factors on voluntary f...

Twenty-four yearling male local Washera lambs with an average initial body weight of 18.14 ± 1.07 kg were used to assess the nutritional value of Millettia ferruginea. Experimental animals were grouped into six blocks of four animals, and each animal was randomly assigned to one of the four dietary treatment feeds. The treatments used were; Sole natural pasture grass hay (T1), and 150, 300, 450...