Beef Steer Performance on Irrigated Monoculture Legume Pastures Compared with Grass- and Concentrate-Fed Steers.

Fall- or spring-born steers grazed monoculture irrigated birdsfoot trefoil (BFT; Lotus corniculatus L.) or cicer milkvetch (CMV; Astragalus cicer L.) pastures for approximately 12 weeks for 3 years and were compared with steers on concentrate diets.

Elemental composition and moisture prediction in manure by portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy using random forest regression.

Manure elemental composition determination is essential to develop farm nutrient budgets and assess environmental risk. Portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) spectrometers could facilitate hazardous waste-free, rapid, and cost-effective elemental concentration determinations. However, sample moisture is a problem for elemental concentration determination by X-ray methods.

Light Interception and the Growth of Pastures under Ideal and Stressful Growing Conditions on the Allegheny Plateau.

Pasture-based livestock production is impacted by management and weather. In pastures, there is conflict between leaf retention for plant growth and leaf harvest for animal nutrition. Defoliated pastures with low light interception (LI) may have a low forage growth rate (FGR), while excessive growth shades leaves, reducing FGR and resulting in an S-shaped regrowth curve.

Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy for Rapid and Cost-Effective Determination of Elemental Composition of Ground Forage.

The recent development of portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometers (PXRF) has created new avenues for rapid plant elemental concentration determination at reduced cost while avoiding hazardous chemicals. A few studies have indicated the potential use of PXRF for homogenous plant tissue analysis. However, there is a lack of information for analysis of heterogeneous plant samples like livestock forage, which consists of a mixture of several species and plant parts, each varying in elemental concentration.