• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.41-60
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• 1983

Experiments were conducted to study the effect of stage of maturity at harvest on the quality of silage. Herbage samples taken from the barley plant, rye plant, wheat plant, oat plant, Orchardgrass, Italian ryegrass, a mixed grass sward of Orchardgrass and Italian ryegrass and corn plant at different stages of maturity and ensiled in order to evaluate the effect of maturity on the chemical composition and feeding value as well as digestibility using sheep. Forage material were ensiled in small concrete silo. 1. The dry matter yield per 10a increased with advancing the maturity. Yield of brarley plant was 404, 635 and 900 kg at heading, milk and milk dough stage, respectively. Rye plant yield was 279, 589, 708, 10,000, 1,265, 1,376 and 1,492 kg at booting, before heading, early heading, late heading, early flowering, late flowering and after flowering stage, respectively. Italian ryegrass yield was 355, 613, 844 and 1,109 kg at vegetative, booting, heading and flowering, respectively. Orchardgrass/Italian ryegrass production was 477, 696, 891 and 1,027 kg at before was 458, 1,252, 1,534, 1,986 and 2,053 kg at tassel, early milk, yellow ripe and ripe stage, respectively. 2. Dry matter content increased with advancing maturity, but crude protein declined markedly. The NFE content decreased with advancing maturity of all the herbages except corn plant where NFE content increased, but corn plant increased. The content of crude fiber increased with advancing maturity except corn plant. The content of crude ash decreased with advancing maturity. In the rye plant, the content of neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and cellulose increased with advancing maturity. 3. In vitro dry matter digestibilities of the rye plant was 53.6, 54.1, 50.7, 47.1, 44.9, 40.1 and 38.9% booting, before hcading, early heading, late heading, early flowering, late flowering and after flowering stage, respectively. The regression equation was $Y=56.22-0.74X+0.009X^2$ (X=cutting date from the first cut, Y=dry matter digestibilities). 4. In vitro digestible dry matter yield (kg/10a) of rye plant increased with advancing maturity, but declined from the flowering stage. The regression equation was $Y=168.88+26.09X-0.41X^2$ (X=cutting date from the first cut). 5. In vitro digestibility of dry matter in the corn plant was 69.2, 71.5, 69.8 and 69.9% at tassel, early milk, milk and yellow ripe stage, respectively. 6. The digestibility of crude protein and crude fiber of all plants decreased with advancing matuity, but NFE of the barley and corn generally increased. 7. The TDN contents on the dry matter basis decreased, but those of barley and corn silage were not different. TDN content of barley was 57.8, 57.1 and 57.9% at heading, milk and milk dough stage, respectively. That of rye silage was 50.0, 27.2 and 43.7% at early flowering, after flowering and milk stage, respectively. Italian ryegrass silage was 67.9, 63.7, and 54.9% at before heading, early heading and after heading, respectively. In case of Orchardgrass silage the TDN was 54.8, 52.9 and 46.1% at after heading, after flowering and milk, respectively. Corn shows TDN value of 59.5, 62.8 and 61.6% at milk, yellow ripe and ripe, respectively. 8. The pH value increased slightly by advancing maturity. 9. the content of organic acid decreased by advancing maturity and also increasing the DM content.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.93-114
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• 1978

The purpose of the study was to find out possible ways for increasing farm income through the sheep and Korean native goats farming, and to investigate meat productivity, wool productivity; woolskin utility, physiological characteristics and correlation between economical college animal farm of the Chungnam National University and sample farms in the suburbs of Dae jeon City were selected for feeding 20 heads of Corriedale wethers and another 20 heads Korean native kids as research materials for the periods of 5th May-26th November, 1977. The data such as growth rate, carcass, viscera weight, blood picture and plamsa components, hebage intake and economic traits were obtained and analysed. The result of the study are summarized as follows: 1. Meat production and quality 1) After 196days of feeding, the body weight of sheep and Korean native goats was increased by two times of those at the beginning of the trial, i.e. 20kg and 8kg respectively. 2) There was no significance of growth rates of sheep in housing and grazing. 3) The growth rate of Korean native goats were excellent at the mountainous areas of Gong ju-Gun where infectious diseases were not found 4) Accroding to the body measurements of 18-month-old sheep, percentages of hip height, body length, rump length, chest depth, chest width, hip width, chest girth and forearm circumference to the withers height were 103,%, 104%, 33%, 44%, 31%, 23%, 135% and 15% respectively, and those of hip height, body length, chest depth and chest girth of 8-month-old native goats to the withers height were 106%, 109%, 46% and 122,% respecitively. As a result, it was found that the percentage of hip height, body length and chest depth of Korean native goats were higher than those of sheep while that of the chest girth of goats was lower. 5) In the carcass data, 47, $52{\pm}2.27%$ of carcass percentage, $34.61{\pm}1.62%$ of lean meat, $26.07{\pm}2.51%$ of viscera, $9.75{\pm}1.4%$ of bone, and $20.95%{\pm}2.14%$ of woolskin for sheep, and $45.58{\pm}5.63%$ of carcass percentage, $27.62{\p}3.81%$ of meat, $34.86{\pm}4.16%$ of viscera, $11.66{\pm}1.83%$ of bone, $3.63{\pm}1.61%$ of skull and $9.26{\pm}2.41%$ of woolskin for native goats were obtained. 6) The contents of moisture, crude protein, crude fat and crude ash in native goat meat were much similar in both plots of housing and grazing. It was, however, known that the contents of moisture and protein were higher in grazinrg than in housing, while fat content was lower in grazing plots. 7) The weights of visceral organs shown similar tendency for both of sheep and native goats. For the weights of liver, heart, kidney and spleen, significance was not reconized among the treatments. Those of rumen, reticulum, small and large intestine were heavier in grazing than in housing, while the amount of visceral fat was heavier in housing. 2. Wool productivity and woolskin 1) The wool production of sheep for 7 months was $3.88{\pm}1.02kg$, and wool percentage, staple length, straighten length, wool growth per day and number of crimps were $9.27{\pm}1.48%$, 8. $47{\pm}1.00cm$, $10.63{\pm}0.99cm$, $0.40{\pm}0.04cm$ and $2.78{\pm}0.40$ respecitively. 2) The tensile strength and tear strength of woolskin treated by alum tanning were highest on the skin obtained from rump, i.e. $1,351kg/mm^2$ and $2,252kg/mm^2$ respectively, and they are in order of loin and shoulder. 3. Utilization and improvement of pasture. 1) The difference of herbage intake of native goats was not recognized between grazing and tethering, but the intake in the afternoon was s lightly higher than that in the morning. However the hervage intake of sheep was superior in grazing and in the afternoon. 2) The cultivation effect was lower in the native goat plots due to their cultivation abilities, in other words, the establishment rates of pasture by hoof cultivation were 60.25% in the goat plots and 77.35% in the sheep plots. 4. Correlation among economical traits. 1) The correlation between live weight of sheep and daily gain was higher. On the other hand, the correlation between other traits was not significant except that live weight, daily gain and lean meat percentage to the length of thoracic vertebrae. The live weight of native goats and meat production were highly correlated, and high correlation was also found between weights of carcass and meat. However, negative correlation was shown between viscera weight and live weight as well as daily gain. 2) The correlatoin between fleece weight of sheep and other traits such as live weight, daily gain and fleece percentage is very high at the 1% siginficant level, and this means that rapid-growth individuals can produce much fleece. 3) The correlation between the factors such as weights of live body, lean meat and viscera of sheep and body measurements, i. e. chest girth and body length was highest, and weights, of carcass and lean meat was highly correlated to chest width and depth. It will be therefore reasonable that the meat productivity estimates will have to be made on the basis of chest girth and body length. The meat production traits of native goats were highly correlated to the most of body measurement data, and the correlation coefficient between chest girth and weights of live body, carcass, lean meat and bone percentage was very high, i. e. 0.992-0.974 in particular. The correlations of meat production traits to chest depth, forearm circumference, body length were 0.759-0.911, 0.759-0.909 and 0.708-0.872 respectively. Therefore, the meat production of native goats will have to be estimated on the basis of chest data. 5. Blood picture and plasma components. 1) The number of erythrocyte and MCHC of native goats were $12.93{\times}10^6/mm^3$ and 36.14%, and those of sheep were $10.68{\times}10^6/mm^3$ and 36.26 respectively. The values of native goats were significantly higher than those of sheep. 2) The hemoglobin concentration, PVC, MCV and MCR of native goats were 10.92 g/100ml, $23.40{\mu}^3$ and 10.94 pg, and those of sheep were 11.73 g/100ml, 36.25 ml/100ml, $33.97{\mu}^3$ and 30.2 ml/100ml 8.43 pg respectively. The values of native goats were significantly lower those of sheep. 3) The number of leukocytes of native goats was significantly higher than that of sheep, that is, $11.64{\times}10^3/mm^3$ in native goats and $9.32{\times}10^3/mm^3$ in sheep. 4) In differential count of leukocyte, neutrophil was significantly high in native goats while lympocyte in sheep. On the other hand, the basophil, eosinophil and monocyte were not significant between native goats and sheep. 5) The amounts of total protein and glucose in the plasma of native goats were 6.2g/100ml and 53.6mg/100ml, and those of sheep were 5.6g/100ml and 45.7mg/100ml, which means that the values of native goats were significantly higher that those of sheep. The amount of total-lipid of native goats(127.6mg/100ml) was significantly than that of sheep(149.6mg/100ml). 6) The amount of non-protein nitrogen, cholesterol, Ca, P, K, Na and Cl were not different between native goats and sheep. 6. Economic analysis. 1) The gross revenue of a farm which fed native goats and sheep was 4,000won per head and the optimum size for feeding them in a farm as a subsidiary work is 5-10 heads. 2) Since there was no difference between housing and grazing, they can be fed in group for farm's subsidiary work. 3) They can be also fed by youths and house wives in the suburbs of cities, because labour requirement is estimated as only two hours per days for feeding 5 heads of native goats and sheep.