Forage plants introduced to Hawai`i have come from both temperate and tropical areas of the world. Although introduced species have changed the face of the landscape, they have often failed to provide long-term benefits to the livestock industry. Proper management of rangelands can result in increased livestock productivity and reduce the need for further introductions of forage plants. Almost ...

Grasslands in tropical environments are characterized by greater diversity than is found in temperate areas. In South Africa, greater diversity is found with the seasonally limited production which occurs on dystrophic soils under humid conditions in the sourveld, as opposed to the year round production that occurs on eutrophic soils under warm and drier conditions in the sweetveld. Most of the...

CNPSo 1112(T) is a nitrogen-fixing symbiont of perennial soybean, a tropical legume forage. Its draft genome indicates a large genome with a circular chromosome and 9,554 coding sequences (CDSs). Operons of nodulation, nitrogen fixation, and uptake hydrogenase were present in the symbiotic island, and the genome encompasses several CDSs of stress tolerance.

A thin-layer chromatographic method is described for the semi-quantitative detection of oxalate in tropical grasses. The method allows the processing of large numbers of samples and should be sufficiently accurate for most screening requirements. High specificity and sensitivity for oxalate is achieved with simple laboratory equipment, but strict quantitation requires the use of a gas chrornato...

This review focuses on the introduction and investigation of pangola grass as a tropical forage species especially in Thailand. Pangola grass (Digitaria eriantha Steud., synonym D. decumbens) is one of recent examples of grasses that have been successfully introduced to Southeast Asia and is often considered as one of the highest quality tropical grasses popularly grown as pasture. Pangola gras...

Sorghum is a tropical grass grown primarily in semiarid and drier parts of the world, especially areas too dry for corn. Sorghum production also leaves about 58 million tons of by-products composed mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. The low lignin content of some forage sorghums such as brown midrib makes them more digestible for ethanol production. Successful use of biomass for bi...

Data on liver vitamin A concentrations in malnourished, debilitated, down cattle in tropical, northern Australia support the hypothesis that 12% annual cattle mortality was due, in part, to a slow release of liver vitamin A. High Ca and low Zn levels in the legume forage apparently contributed to the slow release. The cattle showed marked sensitivity to sunlight and exhibited problems of sight....