The economics of farming continues to be one of the major agricultural problems in the U.S. One important component of the solution is to increase profitability by crop improvement through plant breeding. Improved forage cultivars provide economic opportunities for livestock and crop farming operations and promote a more stable, sustainable agriculture. Farmers benefit by greater animal product...

Mineral analysis of forage from a nitrogen (N) fertilizer, field study produced unexpectedly high iron (Fe) concentrations which were correlated with the N fertilizer level (r2=.92) and the percentage N in the forage (r2 =.94). The high Fe values were presumed to be associated with dust on the leaves. The objective of this study was to determine the level of soil contamination on the forage sam...

Sarah J. Pethybridge, Botanical Resources Australia – Agricultural Services Pty. Ltd., Ulverstone, Tasmania, 7315, Australia; David H. Gent, United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Services (USDA-ARS), Forage Seed and Cereal Research Unit and Oregon State University, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Corvallis, OR 97331; Paul D. Esker, University of Wisconsin, De...

The forage maturation hypothesis (FMH) proposes that ungulate migration is driven by selection for high forage quality. Because quality declines with plant maturation, but intake declines at low biomass, ungulates are predicted to select for intermediate forage biomass to maximize energy intake by following phenological gradients during the growing season. We tested the FMH in the Canadian Rock...

palatability includes plants physical and chemical property that encourages an animal selecta plant for grazing. this study is an attempt for intruducing an indicator for determining thepalatability of rangeland plants. to do this, the relationship between palatability and foragequality of rangeland plants in karsanak rangelands of the chaharmahal-va-bakhtiari provincewas studied. first, plant ...

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...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Increasing soil salinity poses a major plant stress in agro-ecosystems worldwide. Surprisingly little is known about the quantitative effect of elevated salinity on secondary metabolism in many agricultural crops. Such salt-mediated changes in defence-associated compounds may significantly alter the quality of food and forage plants as well as their resistance against pests....