• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.527-530
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• 1994

The effect of orally supplemented urea on eating and rumination behaviour of sheep fed a low-quality hay was investigated in this study. Daily time spent eating was not influenced by ruminal addition of urea, thus the eating rate (g DM/min) also did not change with urea supplementation. The rumination appearance (the lag time after eating) tended to be shorted with urea supplement than without supplement, but not significantly (p>0.05). Daily time spent ruminating was in the range of 600-630 min/d, and rumination index (ruminating time/100 g DM ingested) was 85 min. on the average for all the treatments, but there were no significant differences among the values in each treatment. Daily number of rumination periods tended to be smaller with urea supplement than with no urea, but not significantly (p>0.05), and cyclic rate was almost constant in all the treatments. From these results, it may be concluded that an administration of urea in sheep receiving hay diet could have little effect on eating and rumination behaviour, when it was given at two times a day.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.330-341
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• 2014

Andropogon gayanus is an important grass due to its high biomass production, drought tolerance and favorable growth on low fertility acidic soils. Currently, there is little research on the impact of growth stage on the nutritional quality or the degree of $CH_4$ production that may arise from this forage during ruminal fermentation. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of regrowth stage of A. gayanus on its chemical composition, in vitro production of gas and CH4, as well as in vitro dry matter (DM) digestibility when grown under tropical Brazilian conditions and conserved as hay or as silage. The nutritional value of A. gayanus grass declined with increasing maturity; however digestible DM yield linearly increased. After 112 d of regrowth, A. gayanus produced higher quality silage (higher lactate and lower pH and butyrate content) and higher DM yield. However, the low levels of crude protein at this time would make protein supplementation a necessity for proper rumen fermentation. No differences in $CH_4$ kinetic parameters were found with advancing maturity or preservation method (hay or silage).

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.675-690
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• 2019

Objective: This study investigated the effect of diet and roughage quality (RQ) on dry matter intake, duration and number of daytime and night-time eating bouts, idling sessions and ruminating activities in small ruminants. Methods: In Exp 1 and 2, RQ was improved by urea treatment of veld hay, while diet quality was improved by supplementing with Lucerne hay (Exp 3), sunflower meal and lespedeza (Exp 4), fish meal (Exp 5a), and sunflower meal (Exp 5b). In all experiments goats and sheep were blocked by weight and randomly allocated to experimental diets. Day-time (06:00 to 18:00 h) and night time (18:00 to 06:00 h) feeding behaviour activities were recorded. Results: RQ affected rumination index in Exp 1, but not in Exp 2, 3, and 5. Time spent eating and ruminating was affected by RQ (Exp 1, 3, and 4), period of day (all experiments) and their interaction (Exp 1). Intake rates (g/bout and g/min) were similar across diets. Period of day affected the duration of rumination sessions (Exp 1, 2, and 3); diet or RQ affected the duration of eating bouts (Exp 3) and rumination sessions (Exp 1 and 2). RQ had a significant effect on the duration of eating sessions in Exp 3 only, whilst period of day affected this same behaviour in Exp 2 and 3. Generally, goats and sheep fed on roughage alone ruminate at night and eat more during the day but those fed a roughage and supplemented with Lucerne hay spent more time ruminating than eating. Time spent eating and ruminating had positive correlations to crude protein and feed intake. Intake rates had strong positive correlations to intake. Conclusion: Chewing time, number of eating and ruminating sessions, and duration of eating bouts are physiologically controlled in small ruminants, though chewing time requires isometric scaling during modelling of intake.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.177-183
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• 1976

This study was done to find out the effect of hay and silage versus soilage on the rabbit meat prodution for summer period from June 1 to September 28, 1976. Fourty eight rabbits were fed by hay. silage and soilage. respectively. with some amount of concentrate. and the results obtained were as follow. Daily body weight gain of rabbits were slightly higher in soilage feeding group as 16.86g compared with other groups but not significantly different. And the mortality was the highest in soilage feeding group as 16.7% and silage feeding group was 8.3%. but hay feeding group showed the best health condition during the period of experiment. Feed efficiency was slightly better in silage feeding group as 5,61 than other groups but not significantly' different. The dressing percentage was higher in hay feeding group as 49% and lower in soilage feeding group as 46.79%. It was concluded that high quality of rabbit meat could be produced by high quality of hay rather than by silage and soilage for summer period.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.600-604
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• 2000

Exp. I, the study was conducted to examine the supplementation levels of cassava hay (CH) in dairy cows. Six multiparous Holstein-Friesian crossbreds were paired and randomly assigned in a change-over design to receive three levels of CH supplement at 0, 0.8 and 1.7 kg DM/hd/d. Concentrate was supplemented at the same level (1:2; concentrate:milk yield) while urea-treated (5%) rice straw was offered on ad libitum basis. The results revealed that supplementation of CH could significantly reduce concentrate use resulting in similar milk yield (12.5, 12.12 and 12.6 kg/hd/d) and significantly enhanced 3.5% FCM (14.21, 15.70, 14.9 kg/d, respectively). Moreover, CH supplementation significantly increased milk fat and milk protein percentages especially at 1.70 kg/hd/d. Concentrate use could be significantly reduced by 27% at 1.7 kg/hd/d CH supplementation. Exp. II, supplementation of cassava hay to replace concentrate use was studied in lactating-Holstein Friesian crossbreds grazed on Ruzi grass. Six multiparous cows in mid-lactating periods were paired and randomly assiged according to a change-over-design to receive three dietary treatments, $T_1=0kg$ cassava hay (CH) in 1:2 concentrate supplementation (CS) to milk yield (MY), $T_2=1.0kg$ DM CH/hd/d in 1:3 CS to MY, $T_3=1.7kg$ DM CH/hd/d in 1:4 CS to MY, respectively. The results were found that milk yield were similar among treatments while protein, lactose and solids-not-fat percentages were highest (p<0.05) in cows receiving CH at 1.0 kgjhd/d. Most significant improvement from CH supplementation was the ability to reduce concentrate use by 42% which could provide a higher income for small-holder dairy farmers. In addition, milk thiocyanate was enhanced from 5.3 to 17.8 ppm (p<0.05) in the control and in the CH supplemented group (1.7 kg/hd/d), respectively. Moreover, CH supplementation could significantly reduce concentrate level for diary feeding thus resulted in more economical return. Cassava hay demonstrated as a potential and high-quality on-farm feed resource especially for dry season feeding in the tropics.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.375-382
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• 2009

This study examined the influence of forage source (grass hay and rice straw) and shipping time (24, 26, 28 and 30 months) on feed conversion ratio, growth performance and carcass characteristics of Hanwoo steers. Sixty four Hanwoo steers at 6 months age were fed either grass hay (n=32) or rice straw (n=32) for 24, 26, 28 and 30 months of age. Steers fed on mixed grass hay gained significantly higher body weight at 24, 26, 28 and 30 months compared with those fed on rice straw. Feed efficiency was slightly better in steers fed mixed grass hay compared to those fed rice straw. Back fat thickness and marbling score were increased with the age of steers (p<0.05). Carcass quality traits (meat color, fat color, texture and maturity) were not affected by forage source and shipping time. Shear force, cooking loss and water holding capacity of beef were reduced with advancing age of steers (p<0.05). Moisture content was lower and fat content was higher in beef produced from steers fed mixed grass hay than those fed rice straw (p<0.05). Beef juiciness was reduced with the advancing shipping time of steers. In conclusion, it would be beneficial to feed hay compared with rice straw during whole period of Hanwoo steer to produce high quality beef.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.670-677
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• 2004

Sixteen multiparous Holstein-Friesian crossbred cows in mid-lactation were blocked according to days in milk (DIM) and previous lactation and randomly assigned according to a Randomized Complete Block (RCB) design with four replications to receive four dietary treatments. The dietary treatments consisted of T1: No cassava hay (CH) or stylo 184 hay (SH) supplementation, supplementation of concentrate to milk yield at 1:2 (control), T2: Supplementation of 1 kg of CH/hd/d, supplementation of concentrate to milk yield at 1:2, T3: Supplementation of 1 kg of CH+SH/hd/d, supplementation of concentrate to milk yield at 1:2, T4: Supplementation of 2 kg of CH+SH/hd/d, supplementation of concentrate to milk yield at 1:3. All animals received Ruzi grass from a cut-and-carry system as roughage source. The feeding trial lasted for 9 weeks. The results revealed that DMI of concentrate of supplemented treatments were significantly lower (p<0.05) than those in the control, but there was no significant difference between T2 and T3. There was no significant difference in forage DM intake between the control and supplemented treatments. CP and NDF digestibility of supplemented treatments were significantly (p<0.05) greater than the control and there were no significant differences among supplemented treatments. Milk yield and 3.5% FCM (14.3, 14.5, 14.7 and 14.8; 13.9, 14.3, 14.3 and 14.6 kg/hd/d, respectively) were not significantly different among treatments. Milk protein percentage of supplemented treatments was significantly (p<0.05) higher than the control, but there were no significant differences among supplemented treatments. There was no significant difference in milk fat percentage between the control and supplemented treatments. However, milk fat percentage tended to be higher for supplemented animals as compared to the control group. There were also no significant differences in lactose, solids-not-fat and total solids percentages among treatments. Cows in supplemented treatments gave incomes over supplement cost (IOSC) of 2.72, 2.74 and 2.93 US$/hd/d, respectively which were greater than for cows on control treatment. Furthermore, IOSC were greatest for cows in T4 as compared to other treatments. Based on this study it was concluded that, feeding cassava hay solely or in combination with stylo 184 hay as a supplemental protein source could be a potential valuable strategy in small-holder dairy farming systems in the tropics. This strategic supplementation significantly reduced concentrate use, which resulted in improved milk yields and milk quality for the supplemented cows. Moreover, it resulted in higher economical returns through increased productivity and lower ratios of concentrate to milk yield, from 1:2 to 1:3.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.372-376
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• 1992

This experiment was conducted to determine hay making time on the drying period, hay moisture content, hay loss content, yield and forage quality of Italian ryegrass in paddy field. Plant height increased rapidly from middle of April, and leaf weight rate were 55.6% at April 20 and 18.9% at May 30. Moisture content and loss content of hay were 17.1-20.5% and 10.2-15.0%, respectively, at drying for 4 days from May 10 to May 30. As the growth stage later, crude protein, fat and ash contents reduced, but crude fiber and NFE contents increased. Dry matter and TDN yield at the cutting of May 20 and May 30 increased to 17-18% and 5-11%, respectively, than those of April 20＋May 30.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.284-289
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• 2006

Effects of feeding timothy hay roughage in the growing period on the beef quality with during 24 month(5 month from 28 month to) in twenty Hanwoo steers were investigated. Hanwoo steers were randomly assigned to 2 groups (10 heads/treatment), the control group (C) and the treatment group (T). Cooking loss and the shear force value of m. longissimus tended to be higher in the control group, and the panel test scores of juiciness and flavor were higher in the treatment group. However the tenderness was significantly higher in the treatment group (5.10 points) relative to the control group (4.30 points) (p<0.05). The proportion of fatty acids that were saturated ranged from $42.83{\sim}40.75%$. The unsaturated fatty acid, mono-unsaturated fatty acid and poly-unsaturated fatty acid contents in the two groups were not significantly different (59.25%, 55.61% and 3.40%, respectively, for T; 57.17%, 54.40% and 2.77%, respectively, for C) (p>0.05).

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.323-328
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• 1998

A field experiment was carried out to determine the effects of chemical and mechanical treatment at mowing on the field drying rate and hay quality of autumn oat (Avena sativa L.). The chemical drying agent/mower conditioner ($K_2CO_3$ 2%, conditioning, $K_2CO_3$ 2% + conditioning and control) were treated at different harvest stages (late boot, heading and bloom stage) for hastening hay manufacture in the autumn of 1996. After field dry, square bales were made by hay baler, and the dry matter(DM) loss and visual estimation of oat hay were evaluated after storing two months. In general, the field drying rate of oat was slow, regardless of harvest stage. Mechanical and chemical + mechanical treatment were effective, but the effectiveness of chemical alone was very low. With mower conditioning, the duration of field dry was shortened by 2 days compared with control. The DM loss of hay was higher at boot stage(51.4%) than at heading stage (21.1%), and the DM loss was reduced by mechanical and chemical + mechanical combined treatment. The visual score (leafiness, green color, odor and softness) of hay after storing was high in mechanical and chemical + mechanical, but the score by chemical alone was very low. The nutritive value (ADF, NDF, digestibility, and relative feed value) of hay was also high with treatment of mechanical and chemical + mechanical, but the quality by chemical alone was similar compared with control. In conclusion, mower conditioning can enhance the field drying rate of autumn oat, but the drying efficiency of the chemical drying agent was very low. However, it is suggested that hay-making of oat in autumn is very hard though using mower conditioner.