Seasonal variations of nitrogen and digestible energy intake of cattle on tropical pasture

1980 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 393 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Romero ◽  
BD Siebert

Organic matter intake of cattle grazing tropical pastures was measured during periods of, firstly, new grass growth in the wet season, secondly, regrowth of grass pasture following rain, and thirdly, mature growth consisting of chiefly either grass or legume. The measurements were made by reference to digesta markers on fistulated cattle carrying portable equipment. The intake values of digestible energy were considered in relation to digestibility values obtained from diet samples from oesophageally fistulated cattle grazing grass and legume pastures over a 5-month period, and also to changes in liveweight of a group of unfistulated cattle grazing the same pastures. The measured values of digestible energy intake during new pasture growth, regrowth and during the dry season were in accord with the weight changes. The relationship between digestibility and liveweight change suggested that the primary limitation to the growth of cattle on tropical pastures is one of digestibility. Although supplementary nitrogen is known to increase feed intake in deficient situations, it would seem that substantial improvement of dry season nutrition can only be achieved by using forage that is more digestible than the native vegetation. Some legume introductions appear to do this.

1992 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 569 ◽  
Author(s):  
RJ Moss ◽  
RM Murray

Isoenergetic (12 MJ ME/kg DM) concentrate supplements of varying protein contents, were fed to dairy weaner calves grazing irrigated Setaria anceps cv. Kazungula pastures. Calves in each of the 5 treatment groups were given 1 kg concentratelday containing cracked maize and cottonseed meal in the proportions 1:0, 5:1, 4:2, 3:3 and 0:l. Acontrol group received no supplement. Two drafts of animals were used to measure the response during winter-spring (dry season) and summer (wet season). Without supplementation, calves gained 0.34 kg/day in spring and 0.20 kg/day during the wet season. Supplementation increased liveweight gains by 0.25 and 0.20 kg/calf.day in spring and summer, respectively. Substitution of cottonseed meal for maize did not consistently increase liveweight gain. Calves selected a pasture diet of 97% leaf, 16% crude protein and 66% in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD). Mean daily rumen ammonia concentration was 134 mg NH3-N/L in unsupplemented calves, and 89 mg NH3-N/L in calves fed maize (P<0.05). Cottonseed meal was rapidly degraded in the rumen, with peak concentrations of rumen ammonia of 570 mg NH3-N/L 2 hours after feeding. Concentrations of rumen ammonia and plasma urea were closely correlated with supplemental protein intake (R2 = 0.98). Plasma total protein and albumin also increased with protein content of supplements (R2 = 0.73). Concentrations of plasma glucose and total volatile fatty acids in rumen liquor increased with supplementation, but were not influenced by the level of protein in the supplement. Correlations between liveweight gain and plasma glucose concentration were low (R2 = 0.65 spring; R2 = 0.20 summer). Digestible energy intake was the first limitation to liveweight gain of these calves grazing actively growing, tropical grass pastures. Although animals consistently selected leaf, the level of digestible energy intake was well below requirements, and increasing the level of protein in the diet was ineffective in increasing liveweight gain.


1976 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Playne ◽  
P. M. Kennedy

SummaryTotal VFA concentrations, individual VFA proportions and ammonia concentrations in the rumen of cattle grazing tropical pastures for 7 months during the dry season were compared with concentrations of these metabolites in cattle grazing in the wet season and in cattle given two pasture hays in pens.Neither total VFA nor ammonia concentrations were altered by periods of new pasture growth within the dry season although responses in live weight occurred. Further evidence that concentrations of total VFA were insensitive to differences in feed quality was shown in the pen experiment.VFA concentrations were 53% higher in the rainy season than in the dry season and ammonia concentrations doubled from 62 mg/1 in the dry to 128 mg/1 in the wet season. Ruminal ammonia was related to ingested bolus N concentration (r= 0·58,P< 0.001) during the dry season.Individual VFA proportions did not vary greatly. The highest acetic (79·1%) and lowest butyric acid (5.10%) proportions occurred in the same sample. Iso-valeric and valeric acid proportions were related positively to ruminal ammonia (P< 0·001).In grazing cattle, concentrations of VFA and ammonia in their rumen taken at hourly intervals between 07.00 and 18.00 h did not vary greatly with time. Samples taken before 10.00 h had higher VFA and ammonia levels.


2006 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 35-40
Author(s):  
Hanne H. Hansen ◽  
Jørgen Madsen

SummaryThe diet of cattle grazing in the Sanyati communal area, Zimbabwe was determined using plant particle identification from faeces from intact animals, and faeces and oesophageal extrusa from fistulated animals. A total of 130 plant genus, species and types were identified. The twenty most frequently occurring species in the samples comprised between 76 and 90% of the identifiable diet. The most frequent grass species were more than half of the identified diet in the dry season while they were half or less of the identified diet in the wet season. There were more plant species identified in the wet season than in the dry season. Significant differences were found when comparing the plant species identified in faeces to those in oesophageal extrusa from fistulated animals. This may be due to incomplete recovery of ingesta in the bags, or to the loss of identifiable particles in the faeces when compared to oesophageal extrusa because of digestibility. More research is needed to validate the use of oesophageal extrusa for diet botanical determination.


1986 ◽  
Vol 107 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. L. Coppock ◽  
D. M. Swift ◽  
J. E. Ellis ◽  
K. Galvin

SummaryEnergy budgets and estimates of forage intake requirements were developed for adult camels, cattle, sheep, and goats managed by nomads in the arid Turkana District of north-western Kenya. The estimates were developed by combining our field data on livestock activity patterns, diet quality, weight changes and milk yields with literature based estimates of the associated costs and efficiencies. On an annual basis, the average animal walked 17 km/day and had a total metabolizable energy (ME) allocation of 47% for basal metabolism, 16% for travel, 14% for other activities, and 23% for production. Season and species influenced patterns of energy demand and allocation. Average daily ME requirements ranged from 8·7 MJ (sheep) to 76·7 MJ (camels). ME demand for all species peaked during wet (April-May) or early-to mid-dry periods (June-October), and decreased considerably in the late-dry season (November-March). In the wet season the average sheep or goat allocated 45% of its ME budget to production of milk and gain, followed by cattle (36%) and camels (25%). All species were more similar in ME allocation for production during the late-dry season (7–13%; all to lactation), yet patterns of weight loss during this time indicated that camels experienced the lowest degree of negative energy balance. On an annual basis, camel budgets were the most deviant, as they allocated relatively more ME to activity and relatively less to basal metabolism or weight gain. Estimates of forage dry-matter intakes (per unit live weight per day) ranged from 3·8% (cattle, camels) to 4·6% (sheep, goats) throughout the year, and intakes declined for most species by an average of 50% from the wet to late-dry intervals. This approach has revealed ecological differences among livestock species that help explain the utility of multi-species holdings in this system.


1996 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 781 ◽  
Author(s):  
DB Coates

The dietary preference of cattle grazing Stylosanthes-based pastures in the seasonally dry tropics of North Queensland was studied using faecal carbon ratios (S13C) to determine grass-legume proportions. Estimates were made at monthly intervals for several years in 1 experiment to determine the effect of year, season and botanical composition on dietary stylo proportions. In another experiment, the effect of stylo cultivars (Verano and Seca) on dietary preference was monitored for 17 months. Where pastures provided ample opportunity for selection, cattle showed a strong preference for grass in the early wet season and in the late dry season. The proportion of stylo in the diet increased during the wet season and reached peak proportions (as high as 80%) in the late wet season or early dry season. Dietary stylo proportions decreased as pastures dried off and as the stylo shed leaf or became more stemmy. The length of the wet season and the amount and distribution of rainfall had a major influence on the seasonal pattern of diet selection. Stylo rarely fell below 20% in the diet. On an annual basis, stylo accounted for about 45% of the diet which was appreciably higher than the proportion of stylo in the pasture. Dietary stylo proportions were higher on Seca-based pasture than on Verano-based pasture. The avoidance of stylo in the early wet season was less pronounced with Seca compared with Verano. Later in the season Seca was the dominant dietary component for a much longer period than Verano. The effect of botanical composition on dietary grass-legume proportions varied between and within years. Correlations between grass-legume proportions in the pasture and in the diet were highest in the late dry season and early wet season when preference for grass was strongest. At the end of the wet season when cattle preferred stylo, dietary stylo was not related to pasture stylo content except in a drought year. Averaged over the full year, dietary stylo content was significantly correlated with pasture stylo content in all years and the correlation was highest in a drought year when there was a high level of utilisation and less opportunity for selection. A simple model relating dietary stylo to pasture stylo was developed and is discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Yotta Autika ◽  
Aras Mulyadi ◽  
Yusni Ikhwan Siregar

Riau is one of the most vulnerable provinces to forest and land fires in Indonesia. The potency for forest and land fires is inseparable from the presence of peatlands and exacerbated by drought. The purpose of this research is to know the characteristics of meteorological drought using SPI (Standardized Precipitation Index) method and its relation with forest and peatland fire as one of disaster management effort in Riau Province. The data used in this research are monthly rainfall data from meteorology station and rainfall posts of BMKG, hotspot data from NOAA satellite, map of Forest Use Agreement (TGHK), peat land map and land use map. Analysis of drought characteristics was done by calculating monthly SPI-1 then determining the maximum duration, intensity, severity and drought exposure. Determination of the severity of the drought by weighting and suspension method was based on duration and intensity while drought exposure was done by overlaying the map of the severity of the drought with the land use map. Meanwhile, to know the potential of forest and land fires began with the selection of hotspots on peatlands and forest areas every month then created a graph of the relationship of meteorological drought with the number of hotspots. Then, to see the relationship of drought distribution to the distribution of hotspots in dry season (MK) and wet season (MH) of 2015 was done by overlaying cover the drought distribution with hotspot distribution. The result shows that drought characteristic in the most of Riau province has maximum duration around 4-6 months, dry category of intensity, high category of severity with exposure area in paddy field, field, habitation, and plantation. Then, negative SPI Index (dry condition) has potential to increase the number of hotspots otherwise positive SPI index (wet condition) leads to low occurrence of hotspot. The drought distribution in the dry season (July, August, September) of 2015 triggers the number of hotspots during drought conditions, while in wet season (April, November, December) of 2015 are dominated by normal conditions, some areas are dry and wet, resulting in lower hotspots distribution compared to the dry season.


1998 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN A. BARONE

New leaf production in seasonal tropical forests may result from changes in water or light availability. In this study, the relationship between leaf flushing, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and rainfall was examined for understorey saplings in a moist tropical forest over one year. During the wet season, weeks with greater PAR were correlated with a greater proportion of saplings flushing new leaves during subsequent weeks in nine out of ten species. Rainfall was negatively correlated with subsequent leafing during the wet season for six of ten species. However, during the dry season, rainfall was positively correlated with leafing during the following weeks for six species, but the relationship was much weaker. PAR in the dry season was negatively correlated with flushing in eight species. These results support the hypothesis that under well-watered conditions, light limits leaf production, and peaks in insolation result in greater leaf production.


2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 503-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. H. de Iongh ◽  
C. B. de Jong ◽  
J. van Goethem ◽  
E. Klop ◽  
A. M. H. Brunsting ◽  
...  

Abstract:The relationship between herbivore diet quality, and diet composition (the range of food plants consumed) and body mass on resource partitioning of herbivores remains the subject of an ongoing scientific debate. In this study we investigated the importance of diet composition and diet quality on resource partitioning among eight species of savanna herbivore in north Cameroon, with different body mass. Dung samples of four to seven wild herbivore and one domesticated species were collected in the field during the dry and wet period. Diet composition was based on microhistological examination of herbivore droppings, epidermis fragments were identified to genus or family level. In addition, the quality of the faecal droppings was determined in terms of phosphorus, nitrogen and fibre concentrations. The results showed that there was no significant correlation between body mass and (differences in) diet composition for wet and dry season. When all species are considered, only significant relationships are found by the Spearman rank correlation analyses during the wet season between body mass and phosphorus and nitrogen, but this relationship did not exist during the dry season. When the analyses focuses on ruminants only (thus leaving out hippo), none of the relationships between body mass and diet quality was significant in either season. During the dry season the proportion of graminoids ranged between 10% (small unidentified herbivore species) to 90% (hippopotamus), during the wet season this proportion ranged from 60% (zebu) to 90% (hippopotamus). All species but zebu had more graminoids in their dung during wet season compared with dry season. However all species but hartebeest had more graminoids old stems in their dung during the dry season, compared with the wet season. The niche breadth for food categories consumed by kob (0.300), hippo (0.090), hartebeest (0.350), roan (0.510) and zebu (0.300) was much greater in the dry season than in the wet season for kob (0.120), hippo (0.020), hartebeest (0.190), roan (0.090) and zebu (0.200). When looking at grass taxa consumed, the niche breadth of kob (0.220), hartebeest (0.140), and roan (0.250) was also greater in the dry season when compared with the wet season for kob (0.050), hartebeest (0.120) and roan (0.120). The opposite was found for zebu and hippo. Comparison of the species’ diet compositions with randomized data showed that dietary overlap between different herbivore species was much higher than what would be expected on the basis of chance, demonstrating surprisingly limited niche separation between species. This offers potential for competition, but it is more likely that the high niche overlap indicates absence of competition, due to low herbivore densities and abundant food resources, permitting species to share non-limiting resources. With increasing herbivore densities and subsequent increasing scarcity of resources, the relationship between diet quality and body mass in combination with increased niche separation is expected to become more visible.


2019 ◽  
Vol 99 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyedeuk Bae ◽  
Heesook Ji ◽  
Yoon-Jin Lim ◽  
Young Ryu ◽  
Moon-Hyun Kim ◽  
...  

Abstract To investigate the propagation of meteorological droughts to agricultural and hydrological droughts, the relationship between droughts was analyzed using observed precipitation and agricultural reservoir and dam storage levels with SPI from 1998 to 2015 in South Korea. For the relationship between different types of droughts, we find that the occurrence of meteorological droughts after concentrated precipitation in the wet season (from June to September) tends not to lead to agricultural or hydrological droughts. A lack of precipitation from April to September, when large volumes of irrigation water are consumed, triggers both meteorological and agricultural droughts. In the case of hydrological droughts propagated from meteorological droughts, precipitation deficits in the dry season (between October and March) caused decrease in dam storage levels only. The occurrence of all different types of droughts is associated with extreme meteorological droughts, which are mainly caused by precipitation deficits in the wet season or prolonged rainfall shortages; in these cases, meteorological droughts led to agricultural and hydrological droughts. An analysis of the seasonal characteristics of storage level changes that in the wet season, agricultural reservoir storage levels are more dependent on precipitation deficits than dam storage levels. On other hand, when precipitation deficits were recorded in the dry season, agricultural reservoir storage levels went up, but dam storage levels dropped. The propagation of meteorological droughts to agricultural and hydrological droughts depends not only on drought severity but also on the drought timing. These findings may contribute to establishing a comprehensive drought monitoring system.


1981 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
A.McR. Holm ◽  
AL Payne ◽  
PD Morgan ◽  
EJ Speijers

The study was designed to evaluate the effects of phosphorus and non protein nitrogen supplementation on weaner cattle grazing natural pastures on the Fitzroy Pastoral Research Station, north Western Australia. The study was repeated over the period July 1971 to April 1976, with four drafts of weaners which grazed Mitchell grass pastures during the dry season and curly spinifex-ribbon grass pastures during the wet season. In each year, one of four groups received either no supplement (control), urea plus sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, or urea plus ammonium sulphate plus phosphoric acid. The supplements were measured into and mixed with the drinking water. Weaners given phosphoric acid gained between 10.5 and 21.7 kg a head more than those not given phosphorus. The response was significant in two of the four dry seasons, three of the four wet seasons and for every ye= when both seasons were considered together. Urea supplements increased liveweight gain over the dry season and depressed liveweight gain over the wet season. There was no advantage to urea when the two seasons were combined. Cattle given supplements through the drinking water drank less water and more of those given nitrogenous compounds died than those not receiving supplements.


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