Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T12:59:12.975Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evaluation of pasture for beef cattle from measurements of cell wall in separated leaf and stem fractions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

K. W. Moir  and
J. P. Ebersohn
K. W. Moir
Affiliation:
Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Animal Research Institute, Yeerongpilly, Brisbane 4105, Australia
J. P. Ebersohn
Affiliation:
Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Animal Research Institute, Yeerongpilly, Brisbane 4105, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Three pastures, pangola–clover, setaria, and tropical grass–legume, were grazed for a 9-month period by 12 steers of initial live weight of 199 kg on each. For the first 5 months live-weight gains were, respectively, 1·2, 0·76 and 0·43 kg per day, mostly higher than could be expected for estimated dietary energy concentrations of 10·1, 8·9 and 8·7 MJ of metabolizable energy (ME) per kg of dry matter. The high live-weight gains were not explained satisfactorily by dry-matter intakes as measured from faeces voided and dietary digestible dry matter, but were possible if published values for the requirements of ME for growth and fattening were too high. Cell wall, in vitro digested cell wall and nitrogen in separated leaf and stem fractions were useful indices for evaluating pasture for grazing cattle, but they did not predict live-weight gain.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 100 , Issue 3 , June 1983 , pp. 513 - 518
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Harrison, D. G. & McAllan, A. B. (1979). Factors affecting microbial growth yields in the reticulorumen. In Digestive Physiology and Metabolism in Ruminants (ed. Ruckebusch, Y. and Thivend, P.), pp. 205–226. Lancaster, England: MTP Press,Google Scholar
Mehrez, A. Z. & Ørskov, E. R. (1977). A study of the artificial fibre bag technique for determining the digestibility of feeds in the rumen. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 88, 645–649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minson, D. J. (1980). Nutritional differences between tropical and temperate pastures. In Grazing Animals (ed. Morley, F. H. W.), pp. 143–157. Amsterdam: Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Moir, K. W. (1971). In vivo and in vitro digestible fractions in forage. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 22, 338–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moir, K. W. (1982 a). Theory and practice of measuring the cell-wall content of food for ruminant and nonruminant animals. Laboratory Practice 31, 732–733.Google Scholar
Moir, K. W. (1982 b). Digestible cell wall and undigested cellular contents of two grasses of low net energy value for growing cattle. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 99, 207–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moir, K. W., Ebersohn, J. P. & Evans, J. (1982). Validation of intake estimates in grazing beef cattle. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 99, 209–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poppi, D. P., Minson, D. J. & Ternouth, J. H. (1981). Studies of cattle and sheep eating leaf and stem fractions of grasses. 3. The retention time in the rumen of large feed particles. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 32, 123–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sellers, A. F. & Stevens, C. E. (1966). Motor functions of the ruminant forestomach. Physiological Reviews 46, 634–666.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tilley, J. M. A. & Terry, R. A. (1963). A two-stage technique for the in vitro digestion of forage crops. Journal of the British Grassland Society 18, 104–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tudor, G. D. & Minson, D. J. (1982). The utilization of the dietary energy of pangola and setaria by young growing beef cattle. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 98, 395–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wyburn, R. S. (1979). The mixing and propulsion of the stomach contents of ruminants. In Digestive Physiology and Metabolism in Ruminants (ed. Ruckebusch, Y. and Thivend, P.), pp. 143–157. Lancaster, England: MTP Press.Google Scholar