Grass digestion

Cahbration of on-farm VIS/NIRS instruments to predict quality and quality of the available feed (e.g., botanic composition of the grass, digestibility, FA of the acorns, fruits, etc.). 

The second benefit of white clover is that it increases animal production, whether in terms of higher milk yield for dairy cows or faster growth rate in beef cattle and lambs. The extra production is derived from the higher intake of white clover compared with grass of the same digestibility and also from its higher protein content. 

Fourth lesson - combination of different compounds in unique macrostructure provides unique performance properties. Starch is used extensively in nature to store carbon and energy. Starch is readily digested and must be protected from degradation by a resistant coating, for example, a seed (e.g. com, wheat or rice) or a skin (e.g. potato). Woody materials such as trees, soft plants and grasses are composed of a complex combination of aliphatic and aromatic compounds (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin). 

Differences in digestive ability can reflect different ecological lifestyles of related species. The mountain hare feeds on hirch in winter and grass in summer. when fed birch that is high in phenolics, the hare suffers no sodium loss but detoxifies instead. The European hare does not eat birch in winter but eats grass year round. When forced to eat a high-phenolic diet, it loses much sodium through its urine (lason and Palo, 1991). 

Givens, D.I., Everington, J.M. and Adamson, J.H. (1989) The digestibility and ME content of grass silage and their prediction from laboratory measurements. Animal Feed Science Technology 24, 27M3. 

Moore-Colyer, M.J.S. and Longland, A.C. (2000) Intakes and in vivo apparent digestibilities of four types of conserved grass forage by ponies. Animal Science 71, 527-534. 

Moss, A.R. and Givens, D.l. (1990) Chemical composition and in vitro digestion to predict digestibility of field-cured and barn-dried grass hays. Animal Eeed Science Technology 31,125-138. 

Tomlinson, A.L. (1997) Voluntary food intake and apparent digestibility of grass chaff, and an assessment of mobile bag technique to study the dynamics of fibre digestion in equids. M.Sc. thesis. University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK, 118 pp. 

---