Holstein steers in metabolism stalls were utilized to determine apparent digestibility of N (DN), N retention (NR) expressed as a percentage of total N consumed, and Mcal/kg digestible energy (DE) when diets of seven different classes of forages were fed. The best predictive equation for digestibility of N in the 153 forages studied was DN(%) = -98.1065 + 11.4724 (%CP) + 41.4475 (DE) - .1498 (%...

The acid detergent lignin and Klason lignin methods were compared for their correlation with forage digestibility. Thirty-six forages, including C3 legumes and C3 and C4 grasses, were analyzed for sulfuric acid detergent lignin, Klason lignin, and in vitro digestibilities of dry matter (DM) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF). Twenty of these forages were also fed to lambs at restricted intake fo...

The objectives of this study were to determine the relative effect of feeding corn silage (CS), fermented whole-crop wheat (FWCW), and urea-treated processed whole-crop wheat (UPWCW) compared with grass silage (GS), each supplemented with concentrates, on forage intake, ruminal fermentation, microbial protein synthesis, some plasma metabolites, and ruminal and total tract digestibility in cattl...

OBJECTIVE The use of locally produced forage (LPF) in cattle production has economic and environmental advantages over imported forage. The objective of this study was to characterize the nutritional value of LPF commonly used in Korea. Differences in ruminal fermentation characteristics were also examined for the LPF species commonly produced from two major production regions: Chungcheong and ...

Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) analysis is based on the development of calibration equations that relate constituents and the infrared information spectrum. This study compares 2 chemometric tools for developing NIRS prediction models: the GLOBAL modified partial least squares and the recently calibration strategy known as LOCAL. The LOCAL procedure is designed to select, from a ...

Alpine forages are assumed to have specific effects on ruminal digestion when fed to cattle. These effects were investigated in an experiment from two perspectives, either by using such forages as a substrate for incubation or as feed for a rumen fluid donor cow. In total, six 24-h in vitro batch culture runs were performed. Rumen fluid was collected from a non-lactating donor cow after having ...

The series of severe droughts between 2007 and 2012 resulted in substantial decreases in cattle numbers – and enterprises – in our region. Some of the impact of these droughts may have been offset if producers in the region had reliable, drought-resilient summer forages. For all of the benefits of tall fescue, it was never meant to provide our summer forage. After all, it is a coolseason grass....

cattle—as concentrated feeds, harvested forages, or a complementary grazing program— accounts for a significant portion of annual production costs in a cattle operation. To optimize productivity of today’s cattle operations, some supplemental nutrients will be required at critical periods during the annual production cycle. However, producers need to avoid unnecessarily compounding this cost by...

dairy herd. The quality of these forages greatly impacts profitability and performance, especially of the milking herd. Because of limited land base, labor, or personal preference, farmers may decide to purchase part or all of their herd’s forage needs. In other parts of the United States, corn silage and other chopped forages are sold and oftentimes delivered to the farm as needed. In Kentucky...

Raising dairy heifers from birth to calving has been found to comprise the second largest expense on the dairy farm towards the production of milk (Heinrichs, 1993) and therefore require a reasonably high level of attention on a commercial dairy farm. The focus of this paper will be feedstuffs, in particular limiting forages for the development of the rumen in the neonate, as well as a possible...