The diet of brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula Kerr) in mixed hardwood forests on a central Westland hillside is described from analysis of plant cuticle fragments and seeds in their faeces. Faeces were collected monthly for 2.25 years from animals live-trapped from low altitude forest/ pasture margins through to high altitude alpine shrublands. The diet included forest and pasture foliag...

The level of production by sheep that graze a Mediterranean pasture as it matures and senesces depends on diet selection. By estimatin, 0 diet selection under these conditions using 2 methods, we predict that the intake of nitrogen (N) and amount of N apparently digested (ADN) decreases as the pasture matures and senesces, but that it decreases at a slower rate than the decline in pasture N con...

One member of each of three pairs of monozygous twin dairy cows was fed freshly cut Glycine javanica and kikuyu-grass pasture ad libitum while the co-twins were fed lucerne hay ad libitum and a concentrate mixture. The mean daily digestible organic matter and digestible crude protein intakes for the cows fed pasture were 7.0 kg and 1.35 kg, and for the cows fed hay and concentrates were 10.2 kg...

Ultrahigh stocking density (113,000 kg of beef per ha to as high as 1 million kg per ha) or mob grazing has been suggested to build soil, increase forage production and plant diversity, and improve grazing distribution compared to less intensive grazing systems. Experimental evidence does not completely support such conclusions. The overall focus of this research is based on the approach of bui...

The study reported here evaluated genotype × environment interaction in individual performance and progeny tests in beef cattle. Genetic parameters for final weight (FW), ADG, and scrotal circumference (SC) of 33,013 Nellore young bulls tested on pasture or in feedlots were analyzed. The posterior means (and highest posterior density interval with 90% of samples [HPD90]) of heritability for tra...

The effects of production system (feeding regime and time on feed) on growth performance, yield and economics and the effects of feeding regime, pre-slaughter treatment and electrical stimulation on meat quality were evaluated. Sixty Bonsmara steers were divided into three treatment groups, viz. feedlot, organic pasture and conventional pasture feeding. The feedlot and conventional pasture grou...

Concern at the effect of winter pasture residuals on pasture productivity led to the comparison of different wintering systems at the DRC No. 3 Dairy from May-December 1993. Three farmlets were designed to have 2000 kg DM/ha average farm cover at calving, but with pastures grazed to either 900, 1400 or 1800 kg DM/ha at least once during the winter. A fourth farmlet was spelled from grazing from...

In this work, the effect of finishing diet (pasture- or mixed-diet) on lipid and protein oxidation in beef homogenates was evaluated. Oxidation was chemically induced by ferrous iron and hydrogen peroxide. Lipid and protein oxidation were respectively measured by determining TBA reactive substances (TBA-RS) and protein carbonyl groups (DNPH coupling method). Evaluation of the antioxidant status...

The Tragedy of the Commons by G. Hardin is a famous metaphor for social dilemmas in common-pool resource use. In his famous article from 1968 he argued for an abstract common-pool pasture that the pasture must become depleted as herdsmen have higher incentives to add cattle than to remove, due to the shared nature of the common. However, Hardin built his argument on the assumption of purely sel...