• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.373-377
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• 2007

Alfalfa silage and corn silage are the major dairy feeds in most dairy operations in Michigan, USA. In recent years, the need to improve digestible fiber and dry matter intake of forages to meet the nutrient requirements of high yielding dairy cows and the willingness to plant corn specifically for silage has led plant breeders to focus on the brown mid-rib (BMR) trait. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of different ratio of alfalfa to BMR corn silage and ration level of forage neutral detergent fiber (NDF) on animal performance of lactating cows in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This study was conducted at the Upper Peninsula Experiment Station of Michigan State University in Chatham, Michigan, USA. Two different ratios of forage type (high alfalfa silage/low BMR corn silage, AS, and high BMR corn silage/low alfalfa silage, BMRCS) and two different dietary NDF contents (27% NDF, 27 = low forage/high grain feeding, and 33% NDF, 33 = high forage/low grain feeding) were used. The experimental design was a $4{\times}4$ Latin Square with 20 milking cows (12 multiparous and 8 primiparous). This trial had four 21-day periods with 14 d adaptation and 7 d data collection. Milk yield and body condition score (BCS) on the AS-27, BMRCS-27 and BMRCS-33 treatments were significantly (p<0.05) higher than on the AS-33 treatment. Dry matter intake of the AS-27 and BMRCS-27 treatments was significantly (p<0.05) higher than for the AS-33 and BMRCS-33 treatments. Milk urea nitrogen (MUN) on the AS-33 treatment was significantly (p<0.05) higher than on the other diet treatments. A key finding of this study was that the BMRCS-33 (higher amounts of brown mid-rib corn silage than alfalfa silage, high forage and low grain feeding diet at 33% NDF) led to the equal highest milk production whilst having the equal lowest dry matter intake. This study demonstrated that the diet with higher ratio of highly digestible NDF forage such as brown mid-rib corn silage to alfalfa silage could lower grain feeding in the ration.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.565-572
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• 1999

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of conditioning (conventional vs expander) corn- and sorghum-based diets on production traits for lactating sows and finishing pigs. In Exp. 1, one hundred sixty-eight sows (parity 1-4, PIC line C15) were fed the corn or sorghum grain diets as a meal, standard (steam) conditioned pellets, or expanded pellets to give a $2{\times}3$ factorial arrangement of treatments. Pellet durability index (PDD was similar for the sorghum- vs corn-based diets, but increased when diets were expanded pellets for both corn- and sorghum-based diets. The corn-based meal diet supported 3.3% greater litter weight gain than the sorghum-based meal diet (44.0 kg vs 42.8 kg). However, the advantage for the corn-based diet disappeared with expander processing (ie., sows fed the sorghum-based diet responded more to diets processed with the alternative processing technology). Sow weight change during lactation was similar (p>0.15) among treatments, although average daily feed intake tended to be greater (p<0.09) for the sows fed sorghum. For Exp. 2, a total of 71 barrows (average initial weight of 58.0 kg) were used in a growth assay to determine the effects of feeding com- and sorghum-based diets, as meal or pellets, after processing with a conventional steam conditioner or an expander (high-shear) conditioner. PDI was not different for the sorghum- vs corn-based diets, but increased from 84 to 95% with expander conditioning compared to conventional steam conditioning. Rate and efficiency of gain, and carcass leanness were similar for pigs fed sorghum and corn (p>0.15). Efficiency of gain was greater (p<0.04) for pigs fed the pelleted (356 g/kg) diets compared to those given the meal (348 g/kg) diets. However, efficiencies of gain were similar (p>0.11) for pigs fed the conventional- and expander-conditioned diets. Pelleting increased (p<0.01) the incidence and severity of stomach lesions regardless of grain type. In conclusion, corn-based meal diet resulted in a greater litter weight gain than the sorghum-based meal diet. However, that advantage disappeared when the diets were expanded and pelleted. Finishing pigs fed pelleted diets were more efficient than those fed meal diets.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.1437-1445
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• 2013

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of feeding increasing proportions of corn grain on concentration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the rumen fluid and the subsequent alterations in immune responses as reflected by plasma concentrations of serum amyloid A (SAA) and haptoglobin (Hp) in goats. Nine goats were assigned to three diets (0%, 25%, and 50% corn grain) in a $3{\times}3$ Latin square experimental design. The results showed that as the proportion of dietary corn increased, the ruminal pH decreased (p<0.001), and the concentrations of propionate (p<0.001), butyrate (p<0.001), lactic acid (p = 0.013) and total volatile fatty acid (p = 0.031) elevated and the ruminal LPS level increased (p<0.001). As the proportion of dietary corn increased, the concentration of SAA increased (p = 0.013). LPS was detectable in the blood of individual goats fed 25% and 50% corn. A real-time PCR analysis showed that the copy number of phylum Bacteroidetes (p<0.001) was reduced ($4.61{\times}10^9$ copies/mL to $1.48{\times}10^9$ copies/mL) by the increasing dietary corn, and a correlation analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between the number of Bacteroidetes and rumen LPS levels. Collectively, these results indicated that feeding goats high proportions (50%) of corn grain decreased the ruminal pH, increased LPS in the rumen fluid and tended to stimulate an inflammatory response.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.195-205
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• 1994

Effects of the addition of \beta-glucanase to barley-based layer diets were examined by feeding 200 Leghorn layers with corn-based (Control) and \beta-glucanase supplemented diets (Barley+ Enzyme). The results obtained are sumrrarized as follows. 1. There were no siginificant (P>0.05) differences in hen-day egg production(%) and average egg weight between two treatments, indicating that the \beta-glucanase supplemented barley could successfully replace the commonly used corn in the layer diets. 2. Although there was no statistical difference (P>0.05) between two treatments, the daily feed consumption was numerically high in layers fed the barly diet compared to the corn-based diet. 3. Availabilities of crude fat and crude fiber of the barley diet were significantly poor (P<0.05) as compared to corn diet. 4. The \beta-glucarase supplementation depressed the viscosity of barley diets and excreta from therm. 5. Both serum and egg yolk cholesterol were not significantly affected by the addition of \beta-glucarase in the barley based diet. Our data indicate that the barley grain supplemented with \beta-glucarase can be sucessfully used as an energy source of layer diet when there is a price advantage. Although some possibilities to produce low cholesterol egg were recognized in this study, further studies pertaining to long-term feeding experiment and elucidaton of the metabolic interrelationship between serum and yolk cholesterol, are required to confirm the result.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.629-632
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• 2004

The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of substituting bread by-product (BBP) for barley grain in high concentrate fattening diets for kids on nutrient intake, growth performance, and nutrient digestibility. Twenty-eight Baladi kids (body weight=17.1${\pm}$1.0 kg) were assigned randomly to 4 experimental finishing diets (7 kids/treatment) in a completely randomized design for 70 days. The control (CON) diet contained 20, 60, 11, 7 and 2% (DM basis) alfalfa hay, barley grain, soybean meal, corn grain, and mineral and vitamin mix, respectively. Bread by-product substituted barley grain by 10, 20 and 30% of the diet DM in the LBBP, MBBP, and HBBP diets, respectively. Dry matter intakes for the CON, LBBP and MBBP diets were similar (p>0.05; avg.=592 g/day), however, kids fed the HBBP diet had a lower (p<0.05) DM intake (451 g/day). Organic matter and CP intakes showed similar patterns to that observed for DM. Dietary treatments did not affect (p>0.05) average daily gain for kids fed the CON, LBBP and MBBP diets (avg.=150 g/day). Final body weights for kids fed the CON, LBBP and MBBP diets (avg. 27.1 kg) were greater (p<0.05) than for kids fed the HBBP diet (23.7 kg). Feed to gain ratio was greater for the CON, LBBP and MBBP diets (avg. 3.9) compared with the HBBP diet (5.0). No significant (p>0.05) effect of the dietary treatment was observed for DM, OM and NDF digestibility. Substituting BBP for barley grain up to 20% of the diet DM did not affect nutrient intake, growth performance and nutrient digestibility of kids and resulted in a decrease in feed cost.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.1547-1551
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• 2011

Bakery waste (BW) is much cheaper than barley (20 to 40% the price of barley). Bakery waste and barley grain have similar chemical composition; they contain 99 and 97% organic matter (OM), 1.1 and 1.8% fat, 18 and 15% neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and 14.0 and 14.5% crude protein (CP), respectively (DM basis). The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of substituting BW for barley grain in high concentrate fattening diets for lambs on nutrient intake, growth and carcass characteristics. Forty Awassi lambs (21.75${\pm}$1 kg) weaned at the age of 65 days were assigned randomly to four experimental fattening diets differing in BW ratio in a completely randomized design. The control diet (CON) contained 20, 60, 11, 7, and 2% (DM basis) wheat straw, barley grain, soybean meal, corn grain, and minerals and vitamin mix, respectively. Bakery waste substituted barley grain by 10, 20 and 30% of the diet DM in the LBW, MBW and HBW diets, respectively. The experiment lasted for 56 days. Dry matter intake (DMI) decreased (p<0.05) in LBW diet compared to the CON diet by approximately 10%. No further reduction in DMI was observed with the higher substitution levels. Metabolizable energy intake for the CON diet (3.6 Mcal/d) was also reduced (p<0.05) compared with LBW, MBW and HBW diets (3.4, 3.4 and 3.3 Mcal/d, respectively). Final body weight for lambs fed the CON diet (34.8 kg) was higher (p<0.05) compared with lambs fed the LBW, MBW and HBW diets (30.6, 32.0 and 31.1 kg, respectively). Growth rate for lambs fed the CON diet (232 g/d) was also higher (p<0.05) compared to lambs fed the LBW, MBW and HBW diets (170, 189, and 167 g/d, respectively). Feed to gain ratio was higher (p<0.05) for lambs fed the LBW, MBW and HBW diets (7.2, 6.6 and 7.3, respectively) compared with lambs that consumed the CON diet (5.7). Body weight gain cost was reduced by approximately 8% by the MBW and HBW diets as compared with the CON diet. Dressing percentage, full gut weight, empty gut weight and liver weights were all unaffected by the BW addition to the diets and averaged 48.9%, 6.8 kg, 2.8 kg and 0.444 kg, respectively. However, fat tail weight was increased (p<0.05) with the higher levels of the BW inclusion. In conclusion, substituting BW for barley grain reduced DMI and growth performance. However, when BW substituted barley grain at the 20 and 30% of the diet DM, body weight gain cost was reduced by approximately 8%.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.993-1004
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• 2009

Three experiments were conducted to determine the effects of non-ionic surfactant (NIS) supplementation on ruminal fermentation, nutrient digestibility and performance of beef steers fed high-roughage diets. The objective of experiment 1 was to investigate the effects of NIS supplementation on in vitro ruminal fermentation of cultures administered with corn and barley as grain substrate and rice straw and timothy hay as roughage substrate. The in vivo ruminal fermentation, nitrogen balance and digestibility of nutrients were also examined with steers fed a high-roughage diet in experiment 2. The aim of experiment 3 was to determine the responses to NIS of growing steers fed a high-roughage diet. In experiment 1, ammonia nitrogen concentration for NIS supplementation was higher (p<0.05) than for the control with all substrates. However, concentrations of total volatile fatty acid (VFA), acetate, butyrate and valerate of the incubated roughage substrates, rice straw and timothy hay, were higher (p<0.05) for NIS supplementation than for the control whereas VFA concentrations in the cultures of corn and barley were unaffected. These results indicated that effects of NIS on ruminal fermentation are diet dependent, specifically on roughage sources. In experiment 2, ruminal pH of steers supplemented with NIS was lower (p<0.05) than the control. Ruminal concentrations of ammonia nitrogen, acetate, total VFA and urinary concentrations of purine derivatives were increased (p<0.05) by NIS supplementation. In experiment 3, supplementation of NIS increased (p<0.05) intakes of total feed and corn silage, average daily gain, and feed efficiency of growing steers although they varied depending on supplementation level. Due to the roughage-specific feature of NIS effects, NIS appears to enhance ruminal fermentation of fibrous parts of feeds and, consequently, performance of steers fed a high-roughage diet.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1152-1159
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• 2013

Four male lambs (Katahdin; average live weight $25.9{\pm}2.9$ kg) with "T" type cannulas in the rumen and proximal duodenum were used in a $4{\times}4$ Latin square experiment to evaluate the influence of supplemental dry distillers grain with solubles (DDGS) levels (0, 10, 20 and 30%, dry matter basis) in substitution for dry-rolled (DR) corn on characteristics of digestive function and digestible energy (DE) of diet. Treatments did not influence ruminal pH. Substitution of DR corn with DDGS increased ruminal neutral detergent fiber (NDF) digestion (quadratic effect, p<0.01), but decreased ruminal organic matter (OM) digestion (linear effect, p<0.01). Replacing corn with DDGS increased (linear, $p{\leq}0.02$) duodenal flow of lipids, NDF and feed N. But there were no treatment effects on flow to the small intestine of microbial nitrogen (MN) or microbial N efficiency. The estimated UIP value of DDGS was 44%. Postruminal digestion of OM, starch, lipids and nitrogen (N) were not affected by treatments. Total tract digestion of N increased (linear, p = 0.04) as the DDGS level increased, but DDGS substitution tended to decrease total tract digestion of OM (p = 0.06) and digestion of gross energy (p = 0.08). However, it did not affect the dietary digestible energy (DE, MJ/kg), reflecting the greater gross energy content of DDGS versus DR corn in the replacements. The comparative DE value of DDGS may be considered similar to the DE value of the DR corn it replaced up to 30% in the finishing diets fed to lambs.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.393-400
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• 2006

The present study was conducted to evaluate feeding value of brown rice in Korean native beef steers (Hanwoo) fed concentrates and orchardgrass hay (50:50 on a wet basis) as a basal diet. Either 50% or 100% of corn in concentrates was substituted for brown rice, and ruminal fermentation characteristics, in situ degradability of feeds and in vivo digestibility of concentrate were investigated. The digestibility and nutritive values of corn and brown rice feeds were similar, whereas rumen degradability of brown rice was higher than that of corn. Compared with corn-based diets, the brown rice substitution decreased (P<0.05) ruminal NH3-N concentration, but did not affect rumen pH. Total volatile fatty acid content in ruminal digesta for the corn based diet was higher than those for the brown rice-contained diets. The brown rice substitution increased (P<0.05) the ratio of ruminal acetic acid to propionic acid (A/P) compared with corn-contained diets.Present results indicate that corn might nutritionally be substituted for brown rice as cattle feeds. In addition, we expect that relatively high A/P with brown rice may produce affirmative effects in rumen physiological aspect, particularly under the grain based feeding system for beef cattle in Korea.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.1276-1281
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• 2001

The feeding values of four indigenous Kenyan sorghum cultivars and the effects of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) on the utilization of high tannin sorghum by broiler chicks were studied in two 3-week feeding trials. In Experiment 1, one hundred and five broiler chicks (initial average weight 97 g) were randomly assigned to each one of the seven grain-soybean meal diets. The diets consisted of maize [diet 1; no assayable tannin], white sorghum [diet 2; 0.59% catechin equivalents (CE)], cream sorghum [diet 3; 0.94% CE], light brown sorghum [diet 4; 2.71% CE] and dark brown sorghum [diet 5; 3.54% CE]. Diets 6 and 7 were included to test the possibility of overcoming the detrimental effects of sorghum tannins by adding PVP at 0.25% and 0.5% to dark brown sorghum, which resulted in dietary tannin levels of 3.46% and 3.38% CE respectively. In Experiment 2, the effects of tannin on dry matter digestibility (DMD) and nitrogen (N) retention were studied in a 3-week substitution assay in which high tannin sorghum (5% CE) was substituted for white maize at different inclusion levels. Ninety broiler chicks aged 7 days (initial average weight 102 g) were randomly assigned to each one of the six diets. The diets consisted of corn gluten meal and fishmeal as protein sources plus maize [diet 1] and high tannin sorghum at different inclusion levels [diets 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6], resulting in dietary tannin levels of 0, 1.25%, 1.66%, 2.08%, 2.5% and 3.2% CE respectively. Feed intake, feed efficiency and body weight gain were measured weekly. In Experiment 2, tannin absorption, DMD and N retention were measured on days 19, 20 and 21. The results of Experiment 1 showed that feed intake, feed efficiency and body weight gain were all affected by treatment (p<0.05). Diets 1, 2 and 3 gave similar body weight gains and all were better than diets 4 and 5 (i.e. 504, 517, 473 g, vs. 256, 267 g). Similarly, feed efficiencies were higher (p<0.05) for diets 1, 2 and 3 compared to diets 4 and 5 (0.4, 0.42, 0.39 vs. 0.21, 0.23). When 0.25% PVP was added to the dark brown sorghum (diet 6) there was no significant improvement in chick performance (p>0.05). However, addition of 0.5% PVP (diet 7) resulted in significant improvement (p<0.05) in body weight gain compared to the untreated dark brown sorghum. Overall, PVP did not completely overcome the deleterious effects of tannins. The results of Experiment 2 indicate that sorghum inclusion level and subsequent tannin level had no effect on feed intake, feed efficiency, weight gain, DMD and N retention. The above results suggest that tannin level should be limited to below 2.71% CE in broiler chick diets containing 20% CP and 0.4% methionine. However, in diets with 23% CP and 0.8% methionine tannin level of up to 3.2% will not affect performance. Consequently high tannin sorghum (5% CE) can be used to substitute for white maize by up to 100% in broiler chick diets.