1. Foraging range is a key aspect of the ecology of 'central place foragers'. Estimating how far bees fly under different circumstances is essential for predicting colony success, and for estimating bee-mediated gene flow between plant populations. It is likely to be strongly influenced by forage distribution, something that is hard to quantify in all but the simplest landscapes; and theories o...

Sixteen Holstein cows in midlactation were used in a 4 × 4 Latin square design to determine the effect of replacing alfalfa neutral detergent fiber (NDF), with NDF from a combination of whole linted cottonseed, dried distillers grains, and wheat middlings. The four diets were a basal control diet that was low in forage and fiber [(5.9 g of corn silage NDF and 6.1 g of alfalfa NDF/100 g of dry m...

Plant Species and Variety Forage quality refers to digestible nutrient content (i.e., energy, protein), palatability and digestibility of the forage plant. Legumes (alfalfa, medics, cloves, vetch) are the highest quality group of forage grown in pastures. They are high in protein, energy (digestibility), and minerals. They also “fix” nitrogen fertilizer, making them very economical to grow. Inc...

Bumble-bee declines across Europe have been linked to loss of habitat and forage availability due to agricultural intensification. These declines may have severe ecological and commercial consequences since bumble-bees pollinate a range of wildflowers and crops. In England, attempts are being made to reintroduce forage resources through agri-environment schemes, yet there are few data on how th...

Forage chicory is a productive forage resource for eastern North America; however, many soils in the region are acidic and deficient in P and might restrict the widespread use of forage chicory. There is no published information on response of forage chicory to P, or P acquisition strategies for morphologically different chicory cultivars. The literature suggests the following null hypothesis: ...

Traditionally, heat damage in forages has been associated primarily with alterations in forage protein quality as a result of Maillard reactions. A Maillard reaction is a heat-induced chemical reaction between protein (amino acids) and sugars. Maillard products produce a range of odors and colors in forages, but generally are poorly characterized nutrients in ruminant nutrition. Terms such as h...

Recent research in range ecology has emphasized the importance of forage quality as a key indicator of rangeland condition. However, we lack tools to evaluate forage quality at scales appropriate for management. Using canopy reflectance data to measure forage quality has been conducted at both laboratory and field levels separately, but little work has been conducted to evaluate these methods s...

Intake and digestibility trials were conducted with sheep to evaluate the effect of adding various levels of a typical fibrous grass forage (neutral detergent fiber, NDF = 68%) to a high quality, low fiber (NDF = 22%) brassica forage. Four forage rape:orchardgrass hay diets (0, 40, 70, 100% rape content on a dry matter basis) were fed to groups of six Polled-Dorset crossbred growing wether lamb...

One of the most common problems faced by hay or silage producers is how to manage production schedules around unfavorable weather. Inevitably, some wilting forage crops are damaged by rainfall each year, and producers often inquire about the effects of rain damage, and what impact this may have on forage quality, silage fermentation, and animal performance. Actually, the problem is more complex...

Vibrational energy harvesters can exhibit complex nonlinear behavior when exposed to external excitations. Depending on the number of stable equilibriums, are defined and analyzed. In this work, we focus bistable harvester with two wells. Though there have been earlier discussions such harvesters, all these works periodic Hence, focusing our analysis both quasiperiodic forced harvesters. Variou...