Nutritional quality and organic matter degradability of Brachiaria spp. agronomically biofortified with selenium.

Selenium (Se) fertilisation in grazing systems can improve the quality of animal forage, but there are few studies addressing the influence of Se fertilisation on the chemical composition and ruminal degradability of forage fertilised with Se. The aim of this study was to evaluate the chemical composition and in vitro assays of truly degraded organic matter (TDOM), short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) total gas (GP) and methane (CH ) production of two harvests of Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu fertilised with urea coated with B, Cu and sodium selenate for 0, 10, 20, 40, 80 and 160 g/ha of Se.

Contribution of condensed tannins and mimosine to the methane mitigation caused by feeding Leucaena leucocephala.

Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala), a leguminous shrub promising to cope with feed scarcity in the tropics, may help in mitigating ruminal methane (CH4) emission in the tropics as well. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of Leucaena and major secondary compounds of this plant in ruminants. At first, effects of Leucaena tannins and mimosine on ruminal CH4 and nutrient degradability were tested in vitro.