Four multiparous Holstein cows in midlactation were used in a 4 x 4 Latin square to evaluate whether source of forage influenced salivary secretion during eating in lactating dairy cows. The forages were allocated separately from the pelleted concentrates. Cows were offered 1 of 4 forages each period: barley silage, alfalfa silage, long-stemmed alfalfa hay, or chopped barley straw. Saliva secre...

Livestock animals are at the mercy of toxic plants when these plants are present in feeds or hay. Alfalfa hay or forage, which is commonly offered to livestock animals, may pose a risk if contaminated with poisonous plants. Undesirable effects may result from ingestion of large amounts of alfalfa by livestock but may also be associated with the ingestion of small amounts of highly toxic plants ...

Feedlot performance was studied in a 262-d trial using 126 crossbred beef steers (182 kg initial BW) to determine whether source of dietary roughage influences performance and carcass characteristics by steers fed growing (112 d) and finishing (150 d) diets with various flake densities (FD) of steam-processed sorghum grain. A 3 x 3 arrangement of treatments (two pens of seven steers each) was u...

Four multiparous Holstein cows in midlactation were used in a 4 × 4 Latin square to evaluate whether source of forage influenced salivary secretion during eating in lactating dairy cows. The forages were allocated separately from the pelleted concentrates. Cows were offered 1 of 4 forages each period: barley silage, alfalfa silage, long-stemmed alfalfa hay, or chopped barley straw. Saliva secre...

A major challenge faced by alfalfa growers during the past 30 years has been the increased emphasis on forage quality. The need to produce high-quality hay affects marketing and price, as well as yield and stand life. Demands for high-quality alfalfa by the marketplace have been relentless. Although crop yield is still the primary economic factor determining forage crop value per unit of land a...

this experiment was conducted to consider the effects of maturity and cutting time on chemical composition and available protein content of alfalfa hay for dairy cows.. alfalfa hay harvested at two maturity stages (pre-bloom and early bloom) and two cutting times (morning and afternoon). available protein was predicted using nrc (2001) and dve/oeb (1994) models. in the nrc model (2001), alfalfa...

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of replacing alfalfa hay with ensiled mixed tomato and apple pomace (EMTAP) on ruminal fermentation and apparent digestibility of diets. Six multiparous Holstein dairy cows in mid lactation were used in 3×3 Latin square design and fed alfalfa hay plus concentrate mixture with three levels replacement with EMTAP (0, 15, 30%) during 63 days. Resu...

Sixteen rams (mean age: 13 mo; mean live weight: 40.0 ± 2.4 kg) were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design (4 rams per treatment). Diets (dry matter basis) contained 65% concentrate and 35% alfalfa hay (control diet, T1), 35% wheat straw (T2), 35% barley straw (T3) or 35% maize straw (T4). Total-tract apparent digestibility for dry matter, organic matter...

Two digestion experiments and an in situ nylon bag experiment were conducted to determine the correlations between chemical composition, ruminal in situ degradation kinetics and OMI, and OM and CP digestibilities of diets in wethers fed forages of varying nutritive value without and with protein supplementation. Wethers were fed ground corn crop residues, oat-berseem clover or alfalfa hay in th...