A randomised design involving 66 continental cross beef steers (initial live weight 523 kg) was undertaken to evaluate the effects of the inclusion of maize or whole-crop wheat silages in grass silage-based diets on animal performance, carcass composition, and meat quality of beef cattle. Grass silage was offered either as the sole forage or in addition to either maize or whole-crop wheat silag...

Three ethanol extracts, chamomile (CHA), clove (CLO) and tarragon (TAR), were tested at five doses (0, 250, 500, 750 and 1000 µL/L) to determine their effects on in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD), metabolizable energy (ME), net energy of lactation (NEL), short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), microbial mass (MM) and rumen fermentation kinetics of a 40:60 forage: concentrate diet using in v...

This study presents the chemical composition and in vitro fermentation of five diets with different forage (alfalfa) to concentrate (faba bean) (F:C) ratios, F0:C100, F25:C75, F50:C50, F75:C25, F100:C0 on a dry matter (DM) basis. Results indicate that the chemical composition in term of organic matter (OM), ether extract (EE), crude protein (CP), acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fi...

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), known as the most abundant inhibitory neurotransmitter in mammalian brain, can permeate ruminal epithelia by passive diffusion and enrich rumen environment. To explore whether addition of GABA regulate fermentation characteristics well methane production, a 2 × 6 factorial vitro batch culture was conducted to determine supplemental effect at inclusion levels 0 (C...

Forage age and maturity generally have a larger influence on forage quality than environmental factors. Plant environment, however, cause deviations in forage quality even when harvested at the same maturity. Temperature usually has greater influence on forage quality than other environmental factors. Although increasing temperature normally hastens maturity, the primary effect may be through i...

Globally, pressure on concentrate feed resources is increasing, especially in the tropics where many countries are net importers of food. Forage plants are a possible alternative, but their use as feed ingredients for pigs raises several issues related to their higher fibre and plant secondary metabolites contents as well as their lower nutritive value. In this paper, the nutritive value of sev...

This study was conducted in two experiments to evaluate the dietary physical form on dry matter intake (DMI), performance, carcass traits and nutrient digestibility from Kalkuhy (an Iranian fat–tailed breed) male lambs. Initial lamb body weight (BW) average was, 32 .81 ± 2 kg, and 110 ± 10 days of age. Three treatments (diet physical form) included T1: total mixture diet (TMR) mixed diet (MD), ...

On-farm production of protein is limited in most dairy farm operations in arid and semi-arid environments. Cereal-legume intercropping could be a viable option to obtain forage with higher protein content. A two-year experiment was conducted during 2009 and 2010 growing seasons in a loamy soil to determine whether intercropping pattern of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and annual medic (Medica...