Choices between red clover and fescue in the diet can be reliably estimated in heifers post-weaning using n -alkanes

Animal : an International Journal of Animal Bioscience
N Vargas JuradoR M Lewis

Abstract

Measuring diet choice in grazing animals is challenging, complicating the assessment of feed efficiency in pasture-based systems. Furthermore, animals may modify their intake of a forage species depending on its nutritive value and on their own physiological status. Various fecal markers have been used to estimate feed intake in grazing animals. However, plant-wax markers such as n-alkanes (ALK) and long-chain alcohols may provide reliable estimates of both dietary choices and intakes. Still, their use in beef cattle has been relatively limited. The present study was designed to test the reliability of the ALK technique to estimate diet choices in beef heifers. Twenty-two Angus-cross heifers were evaluated at both post-weaning and yearling age. At each age, they were offered both red clover and fescue hay as cubes. Following 3-week acclimation periods, daily intake of each forage species was assessed daily for 10 days. During the final 5 days, fecal grab samples were collected twice daily. The ALK fecal concentrations were adjusted using recovery fractions compiled from literature. Diet composition was estimated using two statistical methods. Post-weaning, dietary choices were reliably estimated, with low residual error, regard...Continue Reading

References

Sep 1, 1992·Journal of Dairy Science·F N Owens, C F Hanson
Dec 1, 1981·Journal of Animal Science·E C PriggeR L Reid
Feb 12, 2005·Journal of Animal Science·M A Gorocica-Buenfil, S C Loerch
Jun 1, 2000·Nutrition Research Reviews·R W Mayes, H Dove
Mar 23, 2012·Animal : an International Journal of Animal Bioscience·L M M FerreiraK Osoro
Jan 1, 2008·Animal : an International Journal of Animal Bioscience·C ElwertM Rodehutscord
May 29, 2015·Journal of Animal Science·N Vargas JuradoR M Lewis
Jul 15, 2015·Animal : an International Journal of Animal Bioscience·C López LópezL M M Ferreira

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