Prickly pear (Opuntia sp.) is both a benefit and hindrance to the livestock industry in the southwestern U.S. It competes with herbaceous forage but is sometimes used as emergency feed during drought. Spineless prickly pear (0. fiscus-indica Engelm. and 0. rufida Engelm.) has been planted in some regions of the southwest but little is known about its nutritional value. Our objectives were to de...

Alfalfa use by dairy cattle has decreased in recent years because of excessive nonprotein nitrogen and low fiber digestibility. Ideal attributes for plant modification of alfalfa may include those that increase milk potential per acre and/or per ton, enhance digestible NDF, improve protein content and amino acid balance, improve agronomic traits for insect protection (safer forage supply), herb...

Whole-plant corn was harvested at early dent, quarter milkline, two-thirds milkline, and black layer stages to evaluate the effects of maturity on intake, digestion, and milk production when corn was fed as silage in the diet. Twenty multiparous Holstein cows were used in a replicated experiment with a 4 x 4 Latin square design with 28-d periods. Diets containing 50% forage (67% corn silage and...

Background: Alfalfa, Medicago sativa L. is the most important and widely grown leguminous fodder crop in temperate tropical regions of world. The production alfalfa limited by several biotic stresses, among which witches’ broom disease (AWB) was reported to cause significant economic losses. Methods: phytoplasma infected plants were collected from a central research farm, ICAR-IGFRI, Jhansi, U....

The effect of alfalfa ensiled in bunker silos at high moisture [HM, 34% dry matter (DM)] and low moisture (LM, 56% DM) content on milk production and Grana Padano cheese quality was studied. Forty Italian Friesian lactating cows were allotted to two groups and fed, in a crossover design experiment, two corn silage-based diets containing 27% of the total DM as HM or LM. Each of the two periods i...

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is an important legume forage crop with great economic value. However, as the growth of alfalfa is seriously affected by an inadequate supply of water, drought is probably the major abiotic environmental factor that most severely affects alfalfa production worldwide. In an effort to enhance alfalfa drought tolerance, we transformed the Arabidopsis Enhanced Drought T...

We estimated translocatory balance in fruit of the tropical tree Durio zibethinus Murray on the basis of a compartment model. Rates of fruit respiration, dry weight growth and translocation increased with time. Over the 8.2 weeks of fruit development, the relative distribution of translocation was 80% to dry weight growth and 20% to respiration. The ratio of respiration rate to translocation ra...

Alfalfa hay is, or should, be highly valued as a dairy cattle feed due to its relatively high (for a forage) crude protein (CP) level which has a low rumen soluble fraction and a relatively high rumen escape fraction which contains a high level of the key amino acid lysine. It should also be valued for its high level of rapidly rumen digested pectin which has a high cation exchange capacity (CE...

A slaughter experiment was conducted to determine the effects of alfalfa particle size on rumen morphology and performance of lambs. Twenty-four Balouchi lambs aged 21 days (9.1 ± 1.1 kg) were randomly fed control (diet without alfalfa hay; CON) and mixed rations containing 15% finely ground (FINE; 2 mm) and 15% coarsely chopped alfalfa hay (LONG; 3 to 4 cm). After a 63 days feeding period, nin...

Sixteen Holstein cows in midlactation were used in a 4 x 4 Latin square design to determine the effect of replacing alfalfa NDF with NDF from whole, linted cottonseed or dried distillers grains. Low and high fiber control diets (13 and 19% of dietary DM from alfalfa haylage NDF, respectively) were compared with diets designed to contain 13% of DM from alfalfa haylage NDF plus 6% of DM from eith...