LEGUMES AND GRASSES FOR DRY NORTH CANTERBURY HILL COUNTRY

Conifers in the Dry Country

An overview of current and potential hill country livestock systems

This paper reviews current production trends for sheep and beef cattle production in New Zealand and gives some insight into the opportunities for improvement. The New Zealand climate favours pasture growth and this is the key to sheep and beef cattle production with over 95% of the diet being grazed pasture or crop. Exports are the focus of the industry with 92% of sheep meat and 82% of beef e...

Digestibility, intake and mineral utilization of combinations of grasses and legumes by lambs.

Defined mixtures of two grass (orchardgrass, perennial ryegrass) and two legume (alfalfa, red clover) hays, harvested in two cuttings in 2 yr, were fed in digestibility, intake and mineral balance trials to wether lambs. Each mixture was fed in ad libitum amounts to six crossbred wether lambs weighing 35 to 45 kg. The effect of increasing proportion of legume in mixtures on dry matter digestibi...

Measurement and kinetic analysis of the neutral detergent-soluble carbohydrate fraction of legumes and grasses.

The fermentation of the neutral detergent-soluble (NDS) fraction of two legumes (clover, alfalfa) and two grasses (timothy, guinea grass) was measured using a curve subtraction technique with in vitro gas production data from the whole forage and the isolated neutral detergent-extracted fiber. The NDF disappearance and VFA production also were measured. There were no significant differences bet...

Ingestive Behaviour of Fistulated and Intact Sheep Grazing Grasses and Legumes Indoors and Outdoors

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Sward variables did not differ between the indoor grazed turves and the outdoor grazed swards (P>0.05), giving confidence that turves extracted from the plots were representative of in situ swards. Sward height was generally greater for grasses than white clover at the same maturity stage, but bulk density was greater for the clover. Reproductive swards had greater mass b...