Animal as the Solution II: Phenotyping for Low Milk Urea Nitrogen A1PF Dairy Cows.

The societal pressure on intensive pastoral dairying demands the search for strategies to reduce the amount of N flowing through and excreted by dairy cows. One of the strategies that is being currently explored focuses on the animal as a solution, as there are differences in N metabolism between cows even within the same herd. This work was conducted to explore such an approach in A1PF herds in New Zealand and the possibility of identifying A1PF cows that are divergent for milk urea nitrogen (MUN) concentration through phenotyping as a potential viable strategy to reduce N leaching and emissions from temperate dairy systems.

Review: A theoretical framework to define foraging behaviour syndromes in ruminants using wearable technologies.

Due to intensification processes that have had negative impacts on environmental externalities, pastoral farmers, worldwide, are facing increasing scrutiny and pressure from consumers, governments, and the public to reduce the environmental footprint of their operations. Developing tools and systems that farmers can use to maintain profitability and productivity while decreasing the negative externalities of their operations is important for the vitality of rural sectors. Capitalising on individual animal variation has been promoted as an opportunity to increase animal productivity and enhance welfare while decreasing the negative environmental impacts of pastoral farming.

Relationship between Plasma and Saliva Urea Nitrogen Concentrations in New Zealand Red Deer Calves ().

Red deer (), like other ruminants, excrete approximately 70% of the nitrogen they ingest. Developing ways in which to reduce the rate of loss, such as manipulating the diet or selecting for efficiency of growth, requires close monitoring of the plasma urea N (PUN) concentration which, in turn, requires a simple, safe, and reliable method for collecting samples. Saliva is easier to collect than blood, but the relationship between the salivary urea N (SUN) and the PUN is not known for red deer.

A diverse diet increases animal growth performance and carcass yield of grazing lambs.

The current experiments were conducted across two lamb finishing seasons (2019 [experiment 1; ] and 2020 [experiment 2; ]). In both experiments lambs were provided a monotonous () diet (annual ryegrass [ L.] during 2019 and perennial ryegrass [ L.

In Vitro Evaluation of Potentially Edible Brazilian Trees and Shrubs in Ruminant Nutrition.

The present study aims to evaluate the nutritional value of different tree and shrub leaves in Brazilian ruminant production systems. Eight potentially edible trees and shrubs were identified from interviews with 30 ruminant producers: Aroeira (ARO; ), Black Mulberry (BMU; ), Candeia (CAN; ), Jatobá (JAT; ), Gliricídia (GLI; ), Santa Bárbara tree (SBT; ), Tithonia (TIT; ), and White Mulberry (WMU; ). Four leaf samples of each edible tree were sampled, and chemical analyses and in vitro assays were performed.