Five-hundred and fourteen calves subjected to the stresses of marketing and shipping from Florida to New Mexico were used to study performance after arrival at the feedlot. Flaked milo diets containing 50 and 75% concentrates promoted more rapid recovery of purchase weight and more efficient gains than a diet containing 25% concentrates. Free-choice alfalfa hay with the flaked milo diets reduce...

The aim of this study was to compare automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) techniques to assess bacterial diversity in the rumen of sheep. Sheep were fed 2 diets with 70% of either alfalfa hay or grass hay, and the solid (SOL) and liquid (LIQ) phases of the rumen were sampled immediately before feeding (0 h) and at 4 and 8 h po...

The objective of this study was to assess the use of peach pomace in total mixed ration (TMR) silages and clarify the differences in aerobic stability between TMR and TMR silages caused by lactic acid bacteria (LAB). The TMR were prepared using peach pomace, alfalfa hay or Leymus chinensis hay, maize meal, soybean meal, cotton meal, limestone, a vitamin-mineral supplement, and salt in a ratio o...

Story in Brief The influence of roughage source on digestion of :1 high grain diet was measured with 24 Hereford-Angus steers. The six roughages tested were cottonseed hulls, prairie hay, alfalfa hay, sorghum plant silage and two varieties of corn plant silage. The diet consisted of 82 percent whole shelled corn, 10 percent roughage and 8 percent supplement. Daily feed intake was restricted to ...

The objective of the present study was to determine dietary effect different growth stages rapeseed (Brassica rapa L.) on nutrient intake and digestibility, nitrogen balance, rumen fermentation kinetics in sheep. Four treatments were utilised. A basal control diet based alfalfa hay, oat soybean meal corn grain. Then hay replaced with 300 g/kg DM forage harvested at three stages: Vegetative, Flo...

There is ample evidence that our current fiber-based marketing system is inadequate in predicting some of the most important features of alfalfa and other hay products. Worse, our current system has the potential for abuses. Seven of these abuses are described here. One key misuse is the over-emphasis of small differences in fiber concentration (as translated to TDN or RFV), while ignoring impo...

The aim of this study was to analyze bacterial diversity in bacterial pellets isolated from the solid (SAB) and liquid (LAB) phase of the rumen in sheep fed different diets. Four rumen-fistulated sheep were fed 4 diets with forage:concentrate ratios (F:C) of 70:30 (HF) or 30:70 (HC) and either alfalfa hay or grass hay as forage (FOR). SAB and LAB were isolated from each sheep immediately before...

Diurnal variation in the concentration of total nonstructural carbohydrates (TNC) occurs in plants as a result of photosynthesis. Ruminants have been shown to prefer tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreber) hays cut in the afternoon but the effect of morning vs. evening cutting had not been tested in legumes. To test for diurnal variation in preference for alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), we har...

a total of 20 suckling sanjabi lambs, comprised of 10 males and 10 females with respective liveweights of 13.40±1.34 and 11.62±0.85 kg were employed in a 2x2 factorial experimental arrangement. the lambs within their sexes were grouped according to their liveweights and then randomly allocated to either one of the two treatments namely: ad libitum good quality alfalfa hay plus free suckling (co...