Reindeer management in the Fennoscandian area is currently facing challenges such as degradation of winter pastures, which may lead in the most severely affected areas to a concurrent decline in reindeer herd productivity. The use of often expensive supplementary feeding to prevent production losses has increased the demand for studies on the physiological effects of nutritional restriction and...

Meat from pasture-fed cattle can have high contents of α-tocopherol and other anti-oxidants originating from naturally occurring compounds present in grasses. However, meat from pasture-fed cattle may have an increased demand for endogenous anti-oxidants because of its high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which in turn, may affect its colour and lipid stability. In the work described, w...

Attention is drawn to several comparisons of the ARC feeding system with other systems. Recent Australian adaptations of ME standards for drought feeding of sheep and for cattle feeding are described. There is a need to adapt any feeding standards to the biology of the pastoral system. It is concluded that the Australia-wide adoption of ME based feeding standards would be helpful in promoting a...

The objective of the present experiment was to describe the sward canopy structures of 3 different wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) pastures and relate them to short-term herbage intake rate and foraging dynamics by steers. Pastures were sampled for leaf and stem fractions at the bottom, middle, and top canopy strata. Sward surface heights and tiller and bulk densities were measured. Herbage was se...

Female calves (n = 108) were assigned to 6 cold milk feeding treatments in two experiments for a 70-day period. Live-weight (LW) was measured weekly, with an additional LW taken at day 410 and post-calving for animals in experiment 1. In Experiment 1, the effect of feeding frequency and age of turnout to pasture on calf performance and 1st lactation milk yields were evaluated. The whole milk (W...

This study aimed to compare the growth performances and carcass characteristics of tropical-breed steers reared in 2 contrasted feeding systems (indoor vs. pasture) and slaughtered at different ages (early vs. late). A total of 309 Creole steers (growing at an initial BW of 173 ± 3 kg and an initial age of 252 ± 4 d) were used over a continuous 12-yr study. Indoor steers were housed in a cattle...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the metabolic adaptations due to the inclusion of pasture in the diet of dairy cows fed on a total mixed ration (TMR) ad libitum during early lactation. Multiparous cows (n = 18) were used in a randomized complete block design and were randomly assigned according to parity, BW and BCS to one of two feeding strategies from calving to 60 DIM: 1) cows fed TMR ...

New Zealand dairy farmers are increasingly using supplementary feeds in an attempt to overcome the quantitative and nutritional limitations of pasture. The use of rolled maize grain and pasture silage supplements was evaluated on a farmlet basis for two seasons. Supplementary feeding resulted in 88 and 82 g milksolids (MS)/kg dry matter (DM) at stocking rates of 3.24 and 4.48 Friesian cows/ha r...