Dietary crude protein and dry matter digestibility are among the major factors limiting feed intake and weight gain of cattle grazing native and improved pastures in the subtropics of Northern Australia during the dry season. Incorporating a suitable legume into grasses improves pasture quality and cattle weight gain, but only a limited number of legume pastures can establish and persist in cracking clay soils. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of inclusion in buffel grass () pastures on the plasma metabolite profile and growth performance of grazing beef cattle during the dry season. We hypothesised that backgrounding steers on buffel grass- mixed pastures would elicit significant changes in plasma glucose, bilirubin, creatinine, non-esterified fatty acids and β-hydroxybutyrate, resulting in higher liveweight gains than in steers on buffel grass only pastures. Four hundred tropical composite steers were assigned to buffel grass only ( = 200) or buffel grass oversown with (11.5% initial sward dry matter) pastures ( = 200) and grazed for 147 days during the dry season. accounted for 6.2% sward dry matter at the end of grazing period. Plasma metabolites results showed that changes in β-hydroxybutyrate, creatinine, bilirubin, glucose and non-esterified fatty acids were within the expected normal range for all the steers, indicating that with or without inclusion in the diet of grazing steers, animal health status was not compromised. It was also evident that inclusion in buffel grass pastures had no impact on the plasma metabolite profile, liveweight and daily weight gain of grazing steers. Therefore, our tested hypothesis of higher changes in plasma metabolite profile and higher liveweight gains due to backgrounding on low-level buffel grass- mixed pastures does not hold.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8388787 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11082355 | DOI Listing |
Access to adequate nutrition supports an animal's chance of survival and reproduction; thus, it is particularly important for threatened species. The nutritional quality of forage available to the critically endangered northern hairy-nosed wombat (; NHW) has not been assessed for two decades. The NHW Recovery Action Plan 2022 highlighted a need to investigate the effects of invasive buffel grass () on the species' diet - reassessing the relative nutritional quality of highly abundant buffel grass will assist this investigation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
May 2024
College of Environmental and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia.
Nutritive value of five Cenchrus ciliaris (buffel grass) genotypes (IG96-50, IG96-96, IG96-358, IG96-401 and IG96-403) weredetermined. Their sugar contents (>70 mg/g of dry matter) and ensiling potential were evaluated using in vitro batch culture and in vivo studies. Research indicated significant differences (P < 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants (Basel)
April 2024
Institute for Future Farming Systems, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD 4701, Australia.
Animals (Basel)
February 2024
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência Animal, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, Chapadinha 65500-000, Maranhão, Brazil.
Physiol Mol Biol Plants
August 2023
Department of Botany, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan Campus, Bahawalpur, 64200 Pakistan.
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!