In tropical smallholding, goats are a common source of milk either for sale of self-consumption. Concentrates are commonly use to support milk production during the dry season where many trees shed their leaves and are no longer available for feeding. Silage making might be an adequate technology for using forage trees as quality supplements along the year. Few studies have been conducted with forage tree silages to evaluate the resultant animal performance especially regarding milk production. The objective of the present experiment was to evaluate milk production and quality of milk of goats fed grass and supplemented with grains or forage tree silage.

In vivo experiments are the preferred method for ruminant feed evaluation, but they are very expensive, laborious and time-consuming. In situ and in vitro techniques are commonly used as a routine all over the world as a predictor of in vivo results. In situ assays have been the basis of many feed evaluation systems due to its ease of use and low cost. In vitro techniques, such as gas production, give an opportunity to get similar information plus a better description of fermentative kinetics. The aim of this work was to compare data obtained from in vivo, in vitro and in situ assays for the evaluation of three tropical forages used in ruminant nutrition in Brazil.

In Brazil ruminant production is based mainly on extensive systems in which forages are the most important, if not the only, source of nutrients. The quality of tropical forages declines seriously with advancing maturity and in extensive systems large amounts of forage commonly remain unused after grazing during the wet season (spring/summer). This unused forage could be harvested and sun-dried. During the dry season, there is a lack of feed on pastures and the hay produced from unused forages could provide a cheap alternative to concentrate supplements. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate three commercially available tropical forages as sheep feed in the Piracicaba river region of Sao Paulo State in Brazil.

Goats are an important component of the livelihoods of resource poor livestock keepers (RPLK) in Nepal. A major constraint is the poor health (and low economic value) of goats in the early part of the wet season, and this is partly brought about by the shortage of available forage in the dry season. Two invasive weeds (Eupatorium adenophorum, EA, and Chromolaena odorata, CO) now grow throughout Nepal. The plants grow year round, and so could be used as a source of forage, but their voluntary intake and perceived nutritive value by goats is low. If an appropriate means of treating EA and CO could be developed, their nutritive value may increase. EA and CO could then be included in the forage harvested for goats. The objective of this experiment was therefore to determine the effect on the nutritive value of EA and CO of either wilting or soaking these plants.

Values for crude protein (CP) and ruminally undegradable CP content are now required in feed evaluation systems currently used in North America (NRC,1989) and other organizations (Ørskov,1992).The objectives of the present study were to assess in situ ruminal degradability, fractional rates of digestion and the effective degradability of the dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) of alfalfa and red clover hays, selected randomly from dairy farms of Tabriz region in Iran on the male sheep rumen.

Published results in the literature indicate that the inclusion of increased level of degradable protein in the ruminant diet resulted in a stimulation of ruminal pH, ruminal N-NH3 and microbial N entering duodenum (Mesgeran & Parker, 1998). The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effect of altering the dietary sources of protein with similar amounts of ERDP on the apparent digestibility, ruminal fermentation characteristics and microbial protein entering duodenum in Iranian Baloochi lambs.

It is generally agreed that peptides accumulate in the rumen fluid after feeding. It has been also suggested that the production of peptides in the rumen was not altered by the protein supplements when diets provided similar effective rumen degradable protein (Mesgaran & Moosavi, 1999). The objective of the present experiment was to investigate the effect of diets containing lucerne hay or silage treated by urea and formaldehyde on the ruminal peptide and soluble protein N concentrations in Iranian Baloochi lambs.

Ruminal degradability of feed protein is an important factor when assessing feed protein value according to the modern ruminant feed evaluation systems. In addition, the worth of any food protein to ruminant animals depends on the how the protein is digested in the small intestine. The work described in this summary assessed the in situ degradability and intestinal apparent digestibility of dry matter and protein, using ruminal and intestinal mobile nylon bags technique, of Iranian soybean (S) and cottonseed (C) meals.

Zambian small-holders are dependent on natural grazing to supply the nutrient requirements of their cattle. During the dry season grazing is severely limited, production declines steeply, reproductive cycles become dormant and new-born calves are subject to a high mortality rate. A potential supplemental feed, maize stover, is poorly exploited resulting in extensive field losses. Collection and controlled feeding would greatly increase its efficiency of use, plus such a feed system offers the opportunity to chemically treat the maize stover pre-feeding. This study was conducted to identify the degree to which the nutritive value of this material could be improved using such techniques.

Shortages of feed resources often impose major constraints on the development of animal production in the tropics and sub-tropics. Considerable quantities of crop residues and agro - industrial by products are generated every year in most developing countries. Forage crops must have particular features to warrant their use in animal production and feeding systems. These are related to seasonality of yield and product quality (Wilkins, 2000). Silage crops can provide forage of high nutritive value and high yields per unit of land are desirable to diversify crop rotations and to allow production changes, which may improve yields for livestock. Sunflower (Helianthus annus, L.) is mostly grown for seed oil production where the seeds represent only about one third of the total dry matter content of the crop ranging from 3 to 4 ton ha -1. Reports on the chemical composition of sunflower silage suggested that total digestible nutrients of sunflower were two-thirds of that of corn silage. These characteristics of sunflower show its great potential so as to include it as a forage crop. Sunflower is grown in Uruguay for seed oil production (approximately 150000 ha) showing great potential to be include in animal production systems as an alternative silage crop. The objective of the present work was to evaluate the nutritive value of sunflower as whole crop silage.

In 1999 85 % of the milk and milk products consumed in Sri Lanka were imported at a cost of over 7000 m rupees. While this appears to offer a major opportunity for the national herd to improve production, indiscriminate deforestation, reduction of farm size and increased use of agricultural land for crop production has tended to depress both cattle numbers and production. Poor nutritional status of the animals is the major limiting constraint, caused by the inadequate supply of quality feedstuffs and confounded by the lack of advice from the poorly supported agricultural extension service. In addition little detailed information exists concerning the nutritive value of the majority of Sri Lankan feeds. Three in vitro techniques – the Minson and McLeod (1972) version of Tilley and Terry (T&T), the modified ANKOM (ANK) batch culture technique (Mould and Nordheim, 1998) and the RPT methodology (Mauricio et al., 1999) were compared in an effort to identify a suitable system to investigate Sri Lankan feeds. The degradation characteristics of rice straw were investigated in this study as, while nearly three-quarters of Sri Lankan cattle and buffaloes are reared in arid zone where rice straw is the major crop residue, only a small proportion is offered as feed.

In Iran, the availability of the protein supplements resources for ruminant animals is low. Therefore, protein enrichment of fibrous substrates such as sugar beet pulp (SBP) could make this by-product to be used as a protein supplement for livestock. Several workers have studied the effect of different fungi on the concentration of crude protein in the SBP (Lena and Quaglia, 1992; Shojaosadati et al, 1999). However, very little information is available in the literature regarding the effect of Neurospora Sitophila (NS) fungi on the nutrients digestibility as well as the protein quality of SBP for ruminants. Therefore, this experiment was carried out to study the changes in the chemical composition, the digestibility of dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM) and the protein degradability of SBP treated with NS.

White- rot fungi have been investigated for biological upgradation of cereal straws into livestock Feed by solid substrate fermentation (Tripathi et al. 1991). Studies showed that pleurotus sajor- cajo(PSC) grew well on wheat straw and improved nutritive value (Leng 1990), due to the presence of wide spectrum of extracellular hydrolytic and oxidative enzymes and high infiltration of the mycelium into the substrate (Kokhreidze et al,1993).The objective of this study was to examine the effect of treated wheat straw by PSC edible fungi on feed intake and daily gain of fattening male lambs.

Since last decades, much interest has been evidenced for bioconversion of lignocellulosic materials such as production of edible mushroom. In Iran, the mushroom industry has been expanded during the last 20 years and currently more than 50000 tons of mushroom compost is produced annually by aerobic fermentation system. The compost remained after cropping of mushroom constitutes a potential pollutant and its disposal increases the production cost. This waste material is usually rich of microorganisms and extra cellular enzymes (Ball and Jacksa, 1995) and contains a high level of nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus and trace elements and more degradable than the original straw in the rumen (Zadrazil, 1997). However, there are limited information regarding the nutritive value and utilisation of the mushroom spent straw in animal nutrition. This experiment was conducted to study the nutritive value and acceptability of the Agaricus bisporus mushroom spent wheat straw, obtained from bag system mushroom growing in sheep nutrition.

Nearly 2.4 million tons of rice is consumed by Iranian(37kg/person/year). Generally, in rice cocking process the grain is boiled and drained and a large volume of rice water is produced. Rice water is content of 5%DM, 0.43% CP, 3.75% NFE and almost 2 Mcal/KgDM gross energy. This liquid as a product of drained processing can be utilized in animal feeding (Valizadeh et al. 2000). Two studies carried out to evaluated the differences levels of rice water and its effects on milk production, rumen and blood metabolites of dairy cows.

An understanding of the dry matter intake (DMI) capacity of suckler cows is crucial to the provision of adequate nutrition during lactation. However, quantitative data on the likely feed intake patterns of modern continental x dairy suckler cow genotypes is scarce. The objective of the current experiment was to determine voluntary DMI in Simmental x Holstein/Friesian (SIM) and Belgian Blue x Holstein/Friesian (BB) autumn calving suckler cows offered a grass silage based diet ad libitum.

With the current situation of low profitability in the beef industry, producers must aim to produce beef efficiently and at minimum cost. In view of the ready availability of Holstein Friesian bull calves as a by-product of the dairy industry, the rearing and finishing of these animals offers a possible source of income to beef producers. The objective of the present study was to examine the influence of slaughter weight on feed efficiency and production characteristics of Holstein-Friesian bulls offered a cereal-based diet.

The expectation in the EU is that the use of antibiotic growth promoters in animal production will be banned by 2005. The challenge is to find an appropriate alternative for use in calf milk replacer diets. Polyclonal antibody addition to the diet may offer a potential alternative to antibiotic feed additives. Surface active polyclonal egg antibodies derived from hyper-immunised chickens may offer such an alternative. Antibodies for common livestock pathogens can be raised in the hen and passed on to the egg and the eggs are used to produce hyper-immunised spray dried egg protein. However the optimum level of inclusion is not defined.

Crossing of Friesian-Holstein dairy cows with beef breed bulls is widely practised. Recently the Italian Piemontese and Romagnola beef breeds have been imported into Ireland, but they have not been evaluated. The objective of this study was to compare the progeny of these breeds and Friesians for carcass traits. General productivity traits have been reported elsewhere (Keane, 2001).

The assumption that liveweight increase, decrease or stasis reflects piglet response to nutritional or management strategies may be incorrect. Adjustments in tissue composition following weaning result from altered metabolic state. Such compositional changes therefore accurately describe post-weaning response but are unlikely to be detectable by measurements of piglet weight alone. Accordingly, this study evaluates the accuracy of sequential weight measurements as predictors of tissue composition determined by dissection and chemical analysis. In addition, comparisons are made between weight measurement and body density (BD) predictions of tissue characteristics.