• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제13권10호
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• pp.1394-1398
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• 2000

This experiment was carried out to examine the seasonal changes in feed intake and feeding behavior in Korean spotted deer under farmed condition to obtain basic information for efficient feeding management. The seasonal daily gain was the highest (p<0.05) in summer and the lowest (p<0.05) in winter. Dry matter intake (DMI) was the highest (p<0.05) in spring (2,685 g/day) and the lowest in winter (1,929 g/day). Intake of roughage in the DMI was the greatest in spring and that in winter was significantly lower (p<0.05) than in spring. Also DMI, expressed in terms of metabolic body weight ($kgW^{0.75}$), was 85.5 g, 70.6 g, 70.9 g and 65.1 g for spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively, and thus was the highest in spring and the lowest in winter (p<0.05). Deer exhibited similar eating patterns, comparatively short and frequent periods, in all seasons. They showed comparatively intensive patterns of rumination during midnight for autumn and winter and relatively continuous patterns of chewing activity during spring and summer. There were no significant differences in seasonal eating time and ruminating time. However, exercise time was the greatest for winter and the lowest for summer and there was a significant difference (p<0.05) between summer and winter. Although not significant, eating time per 100 gDM ingested tended to be short in spring and summer and long in autumn and winter. Ruminating time per 100 gDM ingested was the shortest (p<0.05) in spring compared with in other seasons. The conclusion can be drawn that since deer have seasonal differences in feed intake and feeding habits, it is necessary to establish and develop an efficient feeding system for deer.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제18권11호
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• pp.1594-1599
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• 2005

The effects of long-term feeding of diets based on bermudagrass hay supplemented with lucerne hay cube (LH) or fermented bagasse feed (FBF) on the growth rate, feed efficiency, behaviour, gut development, carcass characteristics and meat quality of goats were investigated. Six spring-born 8-month-old male crossbred (Japanese Saanen${\times}$Tokara native goats) bucks weighing mean 21.6 kg were allotted to 2 treatment groups (3 animals each) and each animal had ad libitum access to feeds, i.e. bermudagrass hay (basal diet)+LH or FBF throughout the experiment. The FBF was produced by the solid-state fermentation of substrates containing dried sugarcane bagasse mixed with wheat bran in a ratio of 1:3 (w/w DM) with Aspergillus sojae. The live body weight, final weight and average daily gain were not different between treatments. Average basal diet intake of goats fed FBF diet was significantly higher than that fed LH diet (p<0.05), but average dry matter intake (DMI; g/day and g/$W^{0.75}$), feed conversion ratio, digestible crude protein (DCP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) intake of experimental diets were not significantly different between treatments. Goats fed on LH and FBF diets had similar eating, rumination, resting and drinking behaviours, and blood constituents except for phosphorus content. Slaughter and carcass weights, net meat percentage [(total meat/carcass weight)${\times}$100], loin ratio [(loin/total meat)${\times}$100] and rib-eye area were not different between treatments. However, goats fed FBF diet had lower dressing percentage and higher bone/muscle ratio compared with goats fed LH diet (p<0.01). Empty gut and guts fill of goats fed FBF diet were significantly greater (p<0.05 and p<0.01, respectively) than those fed LH diet. The weights of rumen and abomasum were also significantly heavier in goats fed FBF diet (p<0.05), but the length and density of papillae of rumen in goats were not different between treatments. Although meat composition of loin was not different in both groups, the meat of goats fed FBF diet was superior to that of LH diet in flavor, aroma and overall quality of loin (p<0.01). In conclusion, the nature of the diet consumed voluntarily did not affect subsequent growth, nutrient intake and behaviour of goats but had an influence on carcass traits and sensory evaluation of meat partly, when either of LH or FBF was fed with bermudagrass hay.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.422-430
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• 2014

Pasture-based automatic milking systems (AMS) require cow traffic to enable cows to be milked. The interval between milkings can be manipulated by strategically allocating pasture. The current experiment investigated the effect of replacing an allocation of grazed pasture with grazed soybean (Glycine max) with the hypothesis that incorporating soybean would increase voluntary cow traffic and milk production. One hundred and eighty mixed age, primiparous and multiparous Holstein-Friesian/Illawarra cows were randomly assigned to two treatment groups (n = 90/group) with a $2{\times}2$ Latin square design. Each group was either offered treatments of kikuyu grass (Pennisetum clandestinum Hoach ex Chiov.) pasture (pasture) or soybean from 0900 h to 1500 h during the experimental period which consisted of 2 periods of 3 days following 5 days of training and adaptation in each period with groups crossing over treatments after the first period. The number of cows trafficking to each treatment was similar together with milk yield (mean ${\approx}18$ L/cow/d) in this experiment. For the cows that arrived at soybean or pasture there were significant differences in their behaviour and consequently the number of cows exiting each treatment paddock. There was greater cow traffic (more cows and sooner) exiting pasture allocations. Cows that arrived at soybean stayed on the allocation for 25% more time and ate more forage (8.5 kg/cow/d/allocation) relative to pasture (4.7 kg/cow/d/allocation). Pasture cows predominantly replaced eating time with rumination. These findings suggest that replacing pasture with alternative grazeable forages provides no additional incentive to increase voluntary cow traffic to an allocation of feed in AMS. This work highlights the opportunity to increase forage intakes in AMS through the incorporation of alternative forages.