Forage Evaluation in Ruminant Nutrition (Cabi Publishing)
Contributors: D. J. Givens (Editor); E. Owens (Editor); H. M. Omed (Editor); R. F. E. Axford (Editor)
Edition: 1st edition
Publisher: CABI
Published: July 15, 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 480
ISBN-13: 9780851993447
Subjects: Animal husbandry; Veterinary nutrition; Veterinary science: large animals (domestic / farm); Veterinary Medicine - General; Medical / Nursing; Animals; Science; Animal Nutrition; Ruminants; Technology; Life Sciences - Zoology - General; Science/Mathematics; Nature; Forage plants; Evaluation; Agriculture - Animal Husbandry; Science / Life Sciences / Zoology / Mammals; Nutrition; Agriculture - General; Feeding and feeds
Description: Over 3000 million hectares of the land area of the earth (over 25%) is grazing land and another 4000 million hectares of forest and woodland have some grazing potential. World grasslands support approximately 1500 million cattle equivalents (cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and camels) and forages provide over 90% of the feed energy consumed by these herbivorous animals. The world’s forages therefore indirectly provide a very high proportion of the food for its population. This is achieved without seriously reducing the quantity of food available for direct human consumption.

Although forages generally provide nutrients to animals at lower cost than concentrate feeds, they are inherently variable in nutritive value. This depends on many factors such as forage species, climate, degree of maturity, etc. In many parts of the world, forages are conserved by processes such sun curing and ensiling. These processes can fundamentally change the nutritional characteristics of the original forage, sometimes in unpredictable ways.

Given the importance and variability of forages, it is vital that methods exist that can reliably assess their key nutritional attributes including, crucially, their voluntary intake by animals. In recent years a number of important factors have come into play that are changing the ways in which forage characterization in the laboratory is approached. For instance, in some countries characterization of ruminant feeds in general is rapidly moving away from expressions of energy and protein content to an assessment of the nutrients supplied to the animal both directly and indirectly as a result of microbial activity in the rumen. In addition, in some places there is increasingly powerful public pressure to reduce or stop the use of surgically modified animals in nutritional studies. This may rapidly reduce the use of techniques reliant on rumen fluid and alternatives to these will have to be found. There has been a tremendous upsurge in the use of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy for forage characterization in countries where the expensive technology is available. This emphasizes the need for cheaper but still reliable methods for less well equipped regions of the world.

In this book the current status of forage evaluation is reviewed and discussed. An attempt has been made to establish the key aspects of forage evaluation given the demands of increasing nutritional complexity and the constraints outlined above. An account is given of the new technologies now available, and consideration given to some of the new nutritional characteristics that may be important in forages of the 21st century.

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Table of contents: title: Section I. The Importance of Forage Evaluation for Humans and Animals; title: 1 Forages and Their Role in Animal Systems / R.J. Wilkins; title: 2 Forage Evaluation for Efficient Ruminant Livestock Production / D.E. Beever and F.L. Mould; title: 3 Intake of Forages / D.L. Romney and M. Gill; title: Section 2: Estimating the Energy Value of Forages; title: 4 Prediction of Energy Supply in Ruminants, with Emphasis on Forages / S. López, J. Dijkstra and J. France; title: 5 Forage Evaluation Using Measurements of Energy Metabolism / C.K. Reynolds; title: 6 The Measurement of Forage Digestibility In Vivo / C. Rymer; title: 7 Faeces as a Source of Microbial Enzymes for Estimating Digestibility / H.M. Omed, D.K. Lovett and R.F.E. Axford; title: 8 Enzyme Techniques for Estimating Digestibility / D.I.H. Jones and M.K. Theodorou; title: 9 The In Situ Technique for the Estimation of Forage Degradability in Ruminants / E.R. Ørskov; title: 10 Cumulative Gas-production Techniques for Forage Evaluation / B.A. Williams; title: Section 3: Estimating the Protein Value of Forages; title: 11 Animal-based Techniques for the Estimation of Protein Value of Forages / S. Tamminga and X.B. Chen; title: 12 In Situ Techniques for the Estimation of Protein Degradability and Postrumen Availability / T. Hvelplund and M.R. Weisbjerg; title: 13 Enzymatic and Microbial-cell Preparation Techniques for Predicting Rumen Degradation and Postruminal Availability of Protein / S. Calsamiglia, M.D. Stern and A. Bach; title: Section 4: Physicochemical Approaches; title: 14 Characterization of Forages by Chemical Analysis / D.J.R. Cherney; title: 15 Near-infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy: an Alternative Approach for the Estimation of Forage Quality and Voluntary Intake / E.R. Deaville and P.C. Flinn; title: 16 NMR and Other Physicochemical Techniques for Forage Assessment / D.S. Himmelsbach; title: Section 5: Minerals, Vitamins, Antinutritive and Other Factors; title: 17 Trace-mineral Status of Forages / A. MacPherson; title: 18 Major Minerals in Forages / L.R. McDowell and G. Valle; title: 19 Vitamins in Forages / N. Ballet, J.C. Robert and P.E.V. Williams; title: 20 Secondary Plant Compounds and Forage Evaluation / J.D. Reed, C. Krueger, G. Rodríguez and J. Hanson; title: Section 6: General Conclusion and Discussion; title: 21 Current Procedures, Future Requirements and the Need for Standardization / D.I. Givens, E. Owen and A.T. Adesogan