Matua bromegrass hay (Bromus willdenowii Kunth) is a high quality forage, but its value for mares during gestation and lactation is not well known. Intake, rate of passage, performance, and reproduction by gestating and lactating Quarter Horse mares fed the hay was investigated. In this experiment, 12, 2- to 12-yr-old gravid mares (mean BW = 553 kg, SD = 36) were fed Matua hay (CP = 11.5%) or a...

BACKGROUND Floodplain meadows along rivers are semi-natural habitats and depend on regular land use. When used non-intensively, they offer suitable habitats for many plant species including rare ones. Floodplains are hydrologically dynamic ecosystems with both periods of flooding and of dry conditions. In German floodplains, dry periods may increase due to reduced summer precipitation as projec...

There is an increase in awareness of the benefits of grass hay from an agronomic and nutritional perspective. The main cool season forage grass species adaptable to California are annual ryegrass, Italian ryegrass, perennial ryegrass, orchard grass and tall fescue. The main characteristics of these species along with attributes of different varieties are highlighted in this paper. The agronomic...

STORAGE AND FEEDING Each year more than 60 million acres of forage crops are harvested for hay in the United States. Annual production from this acreage is over 150 million tons of hay valued at more than 12 billion dollars. Hay is the most widely grown mechanically-harvested agronomic crop in the United States. As a source of nutrition for livestock, hay offers numerous advantages. It can be m...

Attaining high-quality alfalfa hay is a critical aspect of profitability for alfalfa and animal productivity. Attributes of quality include energy, voluntary intake, CP, fiber and minerals. Forage quality has many attributes and should be evaluated through laboratory measurements and subjective observations such as odor mold and weed content. Measurements of plant cell wall (NDF), as well as AD...

Twenty growing Small East African goats were used to determine the effects of feeding sun-dried leaves of the browse forages Berchemia discolor and Zizyphus mucronata as supplements to low-quality basal diet, Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) hay, on voluntary feed intake (VFI), digestibility and growth performance. The grass hay and maize bran were used as a control. The dried leaves were then inc...

Listeria app, isolated from 13 of 129 (10%) corn silage samples, 21 of 76 (28%) hay silage samples, and 3 of 5 (60%) grass silage samples during a previous Vermont survey were subjected to automated ribotype (RT) analysis. The 13 positive corn silage samples contained 3 Listeria monocytogenes isolated (three RTs, including one known clinical RT) and 10 L. innocua isolates (four RTs). Similarly,...

Cassava (Manihot esculenta, Crantz), an annual tropical tuber crop, was nutritionally evaluated as a foliage for ruminants, especially dairy cattle. Cultivation of cassava biomass to produce hay is based on a first harvest of the foliage at three months after planting, followed every two months thereafter until one year. Inter-cropping of leguminous fodder as food-feed between rows of cassava, ...