Plot trials measured the effect of fertilizers and defoliation on Hyparrhenia veld.

N was the only nutrient limiting growth, and N fertilizer markedly increased the herbage yield and crude protein %. The herbage response was linear up to the highest rate used, 189 lb. N/acre, with a calculated N recovery of approximately 35%. Split fertilizer applications were only advantageous in one year out of three. The effect of N fertilizer steadily decreased at successive harvests after application, and the residual effect in a following season was transient. N fertilizers did not alter the botanical composition of the veld.

The skin is thin at birth. Seasonal variations and changes in the plane of nutrition affect the skin thickness. The differences in skin thickness between breeds of both B. taurus and B. indicus species, are highly significant. Both thin and relatively thick hides may be associated with any combination of milk and beef, early and late maturity, temperate and tropical type cattle.

The difficulties in the semi-arid regions of East Africa where cattle exist during the dry season on forage with a very low nitrogen content is discussed

1. The free amino acid content of seeds Aberystwyth S. 143 cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata L.), S.321 perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), S. 48 and S. 352 timothy varieties (Phleum pratense L.) was studied during ripening.

1. An experiment was conducted in 1959 and 1960 on a rye-grass-white clover sward under a ventilated Dutch light structure to study the influence of the following treatments in all combinations. Cutting to within 1 in. or within 3 in. of ground level, cutting six times per year as for grazing or four times a year as for silage, applying water to restore the soil to field capacity (a) when the soil moisture tension at 1 ft. depth reached 10 cm. Hg, or (6) when the soil moisture tension at 1 ft. reached 50 cm, Hg, or (c) once only in the growing season. Observations were made on the effect of the treatments on the yield and seasonal distribution of herbage dry matter, the clover content, the crude-protein and crude-fibre content, and the root weights.

1. Heat tolerance in nine hair-coated wethers on a maintenance diet was studied during the hottest period of the year near Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia.

Short-term grazing trials with daily blood sampling were carried out on Welsh mountain ewes in early lactation.

1. A small decrease in serum magnesium levels and a very marked decrease in serum inorganic phosphorus levels, were observed in two groups of four ewes, when one group was transferred from an old pasture to a fertilized (high nitrogen and potash) fresh spring ley, and the others to a similar fresh ley but untreated. There was little effect from the fertilizer treatment on the magnesium, calcium, potassium, sodium or phosphorus content of the herbage.

1. Lactating ewes, fed an artificial diet deficient in magnesium, showed no ill effects while they received an adequate supplement of magnesium acetate. Sudden withdrawal of the supplement resulted in acute hypomagnesaemia, hypocalcaemia and loss of appetite within 48-72 hr. One animal developed tetany within 3 days after withdrawing the supplement. Appetite and serum magnesium and calcium levels could all be restored by givingmagnesium acetate supplement.

1. A feeding trial involving 128 individually fed Large White pigs was carried out using four levels of dietary energy in combination with four levels of crude protein in the ‘growers’ rations of bacon pigs. Growth rate, food conversion efficiency, carcass quality and nitrogen balance were the parameters measured.

Ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulphate wore compared as top-dressing applications in thirty-six field experiments on winter wheat and eighty-nine on grassland in various parts of Great Britain in 1956-62. The rates of application were 35-60 lb./acre of nitrogen for winter wheat and 30-100 lb./acre for grassland in one application only.

1. The percentage of intramuscular fat (and its iodine number), of moisture (fat-free), and of total, myofibrillar, sarcoplasmic, stroma and non-protein nitrogens in lumbar 1. dorsi muscles, and their ultimate pH, fibre diameter, cross-sectional area and weight (both absolutely and as a percentage of the total musculature) were determined at bacon weight in two male and two female litter-mate pigs from each of four pure-bred sows mated with one boar of the same breed. Such data were obtained for pigs of Large White, Landrace and Welsh breeds.

1. Three species of grass, rye-grass (two varieties, S 23 and S 24) cocksfoot (variety S 37) and timothy (variety S 48) were cut at various stages of maturity, dried and given at several planes of nutrition to sheep in respiration chambers. The detailed chemical composition of the grasses and the apparent digestibility of the constituents were studied.

1. Four cuts of rye.grass S 23, three cuts each of cocksfoot S 37 and timothy S 48 and two cuts of rye-grass S 24 taken at different stages of growth and artificially (heat) dried were fed to mature sheep in a series of experiments designed to measure their value as sources of energy. The four cuts of rye-grass S 23 were each given to three sheep–two of the animals receiving it at five different levels of intake and the third at two levels. The other grasses were each given to four sheep at two levels of intake. The fasting heat productions of the sheep were measured at the beginning and end of the grass feeding periods. Altogether 152 experiments were made.

1. The metabolizable energies and net energies for fattening and for maintenance of the organic matter of sixteen dried grasses have been related to their apparent digestibilities and to their chemical compositions.

1. An experiment designed to investigate the effects of heavy dressings of nitrogen, inter-row distance and ‘method’ of sowing on the yield of a lucerne-cocksfoot ley is described and the results discussed.